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PRESENTED BY 



THE LIFE AND WORKS OF 
JOHN HEYWOOD 



BY — 



ROBERT W. BOLWELL 



Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for 

the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty 

of Philosophy, Columbia University 



iteto gorfe 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1921 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 



THE LIFE AND WORKS OF 
JOHN HEYWOOD 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
SALES AGENTS 

NEW YORK 

LEMCKE & BUECHNER 
30-32 East 20th Street 

LONDON 

HUMPHREY MILFORD 

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shanghai 

EDWARD EVANS & SONS, Ltd. 

30 North Szechuen Road 



THE LIFE AND WORKS OF 
JOHN HEYWOOD 



BY 

ROBERT W. BOLWELL 



Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for 

the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty 

of Philosophy, Columbia University 



j£eto gorfe 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1921 






Copyright, 1921 
By Columbia University Press 



Printed from type. Published October, 1921 

;,'.n j IS22 






To 

Charles and Caroline Bolwell 

this book 

is lovingly dedicated 



PREFACE 

The danger of writing a book on the early sixteenth cen- 
tury lies in the many temptations to digress. Studies in this 
period are none too plentiful, and the student of Tudor litera- 
ture feels at times that some of his extraneous facts and inter- 
pretations should not be omitted even in the discussion of a 
subject sharply denned. Such intrusions, however interest- 
ing, are not always helpful or valuable. I have, therefore, 
held myself close to John Heywood and the things directly 
pertaining to him. I have relied largely upon the authors 
cited in my notes; without their help this work would have 
been impossible. To Professors Jefferson B. Fletcher and 
Charles S. Baldwin I am personally indebted for suggestions 
and corrections. I am particularly grateful to Professor Ashley 
H. Thorndike for helpful criticism and careful direction; his 
guidance and encouragement are responsible for whatever of 
merit this volume possesses. My greatest obligations, how- 
ever, are to my wife, Adelina R. Bolwell, whose aid in correct- 
ing, indexing, and verifying has been so large as to deserve 
full partnership in the satisfaction of a completed labor. 

Washington, 1921. 



CONTENTS 

PREFACE vn 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xi 

CHAPTER I 

Early Life. The Court Musician 1 

CHAPTER II 

Court Entertainer and Catholic Partisan 18 

CHAPTER III 

The Queen's Favorite 42 

CHAPTER IV 

The Catholic Exile 64 

CHAPTER V 

Heywood's Dramatic Works 80 

CHAPTER VI 

Heywood's Non-Dramatic Works 123 

APPENDICES 157 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 175 

INDEX 183 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

1497 before Apr. 18, Heywood born in London. 
1509 to 1513/4, choir boy in Chapel Royal ? 

1514 before Sept. 29, King's scholar ? at Oxford. 

Sept. 29 to Jan. 1, 1515, retained at court, salary 8d. per 
day. Service not specified, perhaps as musician. 

1515 to 1519, no records, but probably at court in musical service. 

1519 June 24 to Sept. 29, quarterly wages 100s. No duties speci- 

fied, most probably as singer. 

1520 Aug. 1, quarterly wages 100s. as court singer. 
Dec, quarterly wages 100s. as court singer. 

12th Henry, undated, quarterly wages 100s. as court singer. 

1521 End of record of King's Book of Payments. Dramatic 

activities? 

Feb. 4, and Apr., royal grant of annuity of 10 marks from 
manors of Maxey and Torpel, Northamptonshire. 

Sept. 29, given "in consideration of his true and faithful ser- 
vices" income not to exceed 7 marks, from manor of Hay- 
don, Essex. 

1525 spring, Maxey and Torpel taken from Heywood and given 

to Duke of Richmond. 

1526 17th Henry, undated, receives 6li. 13s. 4>d., termed "player 

of the virginals." 

1528 Sept. 29, pension of lOli. per year, player on the virginals. 

This income apparently paid regularly until 1550. 
Nov. 8, appointed steward of king's chamber, lOli. per year. 

1529 or earlier? married to Eliza Rastell. 

1530 Ellis Heywood born. 

1533 New Year's gift of plate from the king. 

? Gentleness and Nobility printed by John Rastell. 
William Rastell prints Pardoner and Friar, Play of Love, 
Play of the Weather. 

1534 Feb. 12, William Rastell prints John, Tib, and Sir John. 
Feb. ? writes poem to Princess Mary. 



xii THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

1535 Jasper Heywood born. 

1537 Jan., Heywood's servant brings Mary's regals from London 

to Greenwich. Heywood playing occasionally in Mary's 
musicales ? 

1538 Mar., plays an interlude with "his children" before Princess 

Mary. 

1539 Feb., presents mask of Arthur's Knights at court. 
Corresponds with former abbot of St. Osith's monastery 

about his land. 

1540 Nov. 21, king grants lease on Broke Hall, Essex, for 21 years, 

at 10U. 
Elizabeth Heywood (Donne) born. Two other children, no 
dates mentioned: Joanna Heywood (Stubbs) and Eliza- 
beth Heywood (Marvin). 

1541 Sept. 12, loses tenure on property in Woodstreet. 

1543 spring, associated with Bishop of Winchester and Germain 

Gardiner in plot to overthrow Archbishop Cranmer. 
to 1544 ? imprisoned. 

1544 Feb. 15, indicted for treason. 

Apr. 12, property attainted and confiscated. 

Apr. 24, referred to as traitor; awaiting sentence. 

June 26, receives full and general pardon, with restoration of 

lands and annuities. 
July 6, makes public confession and recantation at Paul's 

Cross. 

1545 July 5, holds two estates in Dorset. 

Dec. 27, grant in fee concerning other tenures of land. 

1546 Mar., holds priory land in Leicestershire. 

T. Berthelet prints Dialogue of Proverbs concerning Marriage. 

1552 Feb. 13, receives 30s. for services at entertainment for 

Princess Elizabeth; musical or dramatic? 
Mar. 4, appointment as steward of king's chamber renewed, 
salary increased to 40£i. 

1553 Jan., prepares a play for Edward VI, postponed until Easter 

because of king's illness. 
1st Mary, receives 50li., perhaps as personal reward, not as 
regular salary. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xiii 

Sept. 30, sits in pageant at Paul's Churchyard, makes ora- 
tion in Latin and English to Mary's coronation procession. 

1554 fall, writes verses on marriage of Philip and Mary. 
Dec. 29, receives lands in Kent from Mary. 

1555 Apr. 5, appointment as steward of queen's chamber renewed 

salary increased to 50li. 

1556 after Mar., T. Powell prints The Spider and the Fly. 

1558 Nov. 12, resigns position as steward to queen; in place re- 

ceives lease of Bolmer manor for 40 years, and other lands 
in Yorkshire. 

1559 Aug. 7, entertainment for Elizabeth at Nonesuch. 

1562 Works published. Editions of Proverbs and Epigrams have 

appeared before this, also the Four P's. 
? Leaves England for exile. 
1564 Aug. 8, mentioned in Rastell's will, probably then living in 

Malines. 
1571 Mar. 6, Privy Council order to confiscate his lands in Kent. 

1574 Dec. 20, Th. Wilson sees Heywood at Malines regarding 

sanction to return to England. 

1575 Apr. 18, writes to Burghley from Malines concerning his 

poverty and stoppage of his income from England. 

1576 Admitted into Jesuit College at Antwerp, through efforts 

of Ellis Heywood. 
1578 Apr., disorders at Antwerp; Heywood and priest try to 

leave for Cologne, but are ordered back to monastery. 

Pentecost, made prisoner with Jesuits by Protestant mob. 

May 26, refugee, to Louvain. 
Oct., Ellis Heywood dies. 
After June ? John Heywood dies, at Louvain. 



CHAPTER I 

Early Life. The Court Musician 

Some men enjoy the faculty of living currently. Many a 
one has so engaged with life as to win the somewhat redun- 
dant distinction of being "typical of his age," or "a man of his 
own times." The idea behind such description is that these 
men related themselves to passing events. If they did not 
make history, history made them. They plunged, or were 
swept, into the stream; strength and action kept them afloat. 
They did not retire into secluded shallows where quiet and 
safety invited. 

Literary criticism generally tends to emphasize the 
achievements of those who labor in calm waters. It seems to 
prefer to view its heroes pen in hand, in the tranquillity of 
the study, transforming life into letters. Thus John Heywood 
has been conventionally described as a singer, player on the 
virginals, and the writer of a few short interludes; as though 
an elaboration of such data would account sufficiently for his 
personality, so that the man could be dismissed and his 
writings more closely studied. 

But against this incidental glance at Heywood should be 
contrasted the essential events of his life — his intimate asso- 
ciation with the Majesties of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, 
and Elizabeth. He was a Catholic partisan of the strongest 
group, one who carried on the activities of his wife's uncle, 
Sir Thomas More, his personal friend, and one who lived to 
tinge the Protestantism of his illustrious grandson, John 
Donne. He was a crafty enemy of Archbishop Cranmer's, 
who nearly had him executed for defying the king's ecclesias- 
tical imperialism. He was the favorite and intimate of 
Queen Mary, and lived to see Cranmer die, using the fate of 



2 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

his antagonist to adorn a tale, and becoming himself an exile 
in old age, a participant in the bloody struggle of the Refor- 
mation in the Low Countries, dying from the shock of riot 
after eighty years of ardent living. The Heywood of such 
activities deserves more attention than the salaried singer 
and instrumentalist can claim. He had lived much beyond 
the confines of the music chamber and the banquet hall. 

Heywood's father and mother are non-existent in any 
written history of his life. Several suggestions have been 
ventured concerning his father, but they are frankly guesses 
made from a choice of individuals who were employed at 
court early in the sixteenth century, thus accounting for 
John Heywood's early service in the royal household. 
William Heywood, yeoman of the guard, who received 
sixpence a day from Henry VIII, has been suggested as his 
father. 1 Another William Heywood, the king's carpenter and 
joiner, is proposed. He made the properties used in court 
masks, and is mentioned in the king's service not only in 1514, 
but at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and in 1520 when he 
made spears for the king's jousts. 2 A certain John Haywod 
was employed as agent of Sir Adrian Fortescue, to whom he 
makes report concerning soldiery in the country, under date 
of July 1, 1523. 3 Also another John Haiwode, yeoman of the 
crown, received money for news "from the earl of Surrey out 
of Ireland," in 1520. 4 There is nothing definite, however, 
which urges the acceptance of any of these men as Heywood's 
father. 5 

1 Sharman, Proverbs of Heywood, xxxvi ff. 

2 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. Ill, p. 1539. 

3 Ibid., p. 1317. Another reference to this man is found v. IV, pt. Ill, p. 
3116. 4 Ibid., p. 499. 

5 Ant. aWood has mentioned another Heywood in the following note : 
"Principals of Old Halls: 
(Aula) Pury vel Pery: 



Mr John Copland successit Mr Orton, 1510 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICIAN 3 

Hey wood was born in the city of London. Some modern 
biographies of Heywood assign North Mims, near St. Alban's, 
Hertfordshire, as his birthplace. This is done by misapplying 
the words of Henry Peacham, who in his Thalia's Banquet 
(1620) says: 

I think the place that gave me first my birth, 
The genius had of epigram and mirth; 
There famous More did his Utopia write, 
And there came Heywoods Epigrams to light. 6 

In The Compleat Gentleman (1622), Peacham also writes: 

In the time of Edward the sixth lived Sternhold, whom King 
Henry his father, a little before had made groome of his Chamber, 
for turning of certaine of Davids Psalmes into verse: and merry 
Iohn Heywood, who wrote his Epigrammes, as also Sir Thomas More 
his Vtopia, in the parish wherein I was borne; where either of them 
dwelt, and had faire possessions. 7 

Peacham was born at North Mims in 1576, at the close of 
Heywood's life. He says nothing about Heywood's birth- 
place; simply that he wrote his epigrams at North Mims, 
where he owned land. The Mores and Rastells, it is known, 
owned property at North Mims, and Heywood's son, Ellis, 
was given land there by William Rastell, in 1565. It is almost 
certain that Heywood acquired his possessions at North 
Mims not by birth and family inheritance, but by his mar- 
riage to Eliza Rastell, who evidently w r as given some of her 
father's holdings as a dowry. 8 Langbaine, then, is strictly 
correct in saying that Heywood "liv'd at North-mims in 

Mr .... Heywode, 1.511 

Mr John Coplande obiit, 1514." 
Pery: Perry Hall, St. Michael's Parish. 
Survey of Antiquities of Oxford, ed. Clark, vol I, Appendix B, p. 598, 2nd 
column. 

6 See also Park, Wart on Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 371. 

7 Peacham, Compleat Gentleman, ed. Gordon, p. 95. 

8 See Appendix No. 4, p. 163. Also p. 23. 



4 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Hertfordshire, near St. Albans," and that he was a neighbor 
of Sir Thomas More's. 9 Unfortunately, however, this was 
misapplied by many subsequent writers who suspected that 
if he lived there he perhaps was born there. 

Bishop Bale, a contemporary of Heywood's, refers to him 
as "civis Londinensis," and this residence in London is 
mentioned frequently in the State Papers relating to him, 
which will be considered later. John Pitts, or Ioannes Pit- 
seus, a close friend of Heywood's son, one who undoubtedly 
knew the father in his old age, is more definite about his 
birthplace. "Ioannes Hayuodus, Londini in Anglia natus," he 
says. 10 Anthony aWood, who made scholarly efforts to be 
accurate, says, "John Heywood . . . was born in the city of 
London," and Fuller makes the same statement. 11 There is 
no reference to North Mims as Heywood's birthplace before 
Langbaine wrote in 1691, and even he did not imply that 
Heywood was born there. This problem, then, is not diffi- 
cult, nor is it worth further discussion. 

The date of his birth can be determined perhaps within a 
few months. It is generally stated as about 1497. Heywood's 
own statement should not be received sceptically, since there 
is no other accurate information available. In a letter to 
Lord Burghley, dated April 18, 1575, he says he is seventy- 
eight years of age. 12 This is a definite figure. Heywood at 
that time mentioned his advanced age in such a manner as to 
claim sympathy, and he might well have exaggerated slightly 
and said that he was nearly eighty. But since he was careful 
to be exact we may take him at his word. He was born, 
therefore, early in the year 1497, most likely sometime before 
April 18th. The Jesuit historian Droeshout, writing of 

9 Langbaine, Acct. of Eng. Dram. Poets, p. 253. 

10 Pitseus, Relationum Historicarum, etc., p. 753. See Appendix No. 5, 
p. 168. 

11 Ant. aWood, Ath. Oxon., v. I, p. 348. Fuller, Worthies, v. II, p. 382. 

12 See p. 69. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICIAN 5 

events which occurred in the year 1578, refers to him then as 
being a "vieillard octogenaire," also, "ce digne vieillard." 13 
If Heywood were born in the spring of 1497, he would have 
been eighty-one in April, 1578; but the term octogenarian 
applies as fitly to a man of eighty-one as it does to one of 
eighty. There is no other information regarding the year of 
his birth. 

The first definite record of Heywood comes from his 
eighteenth year. He is at court, retained by a special fee 
from Henry VIII. The entry in the King's Book of Payments, 
dated Jan. 6, 1515, reads, "And to John Haywoode (and 
several others) every of theim at viijd the day." 14 This is 
payment for service rendered during the last quarter of 1514, 
from Sept. 29th to New Year's, but the entry does not tell 
what Heywood did or in what way he served the king. 

Biographers since Sharman generally have thought that as 
a boy he entered the Chapel Royal and was a chorister there. 
If the assumption is correct, this must have been about 1509, 
when he was twelve years of age and in good soprano voice. 
There is no mention of the names of the children in the Chapel 
Royal at this time, and so the point cannot be sustained. 15 
In fact, Heywood might just as probably have sung in Wolsey's 
chapel, or in the St. Paul's choir. In any of these three or- 
ganizations he would have been brought under the notice of 
the king. If Heywood was a chorister he probably showed an 
early promise of the remarkable musical gifts he later pos- 
sessed. The king was careful to keep his own choir well 
stocked with the best boy singers and actors. An interesting 
example of this is seen in his command that Cardinal Wolsey 
deliver up to Master Cornish one of his best singers for 

13 See p. 72. 

"Household Book of Hen. VIII, 1509-1518, Add. Mss. 21481, f. 177b. 
Also Sharman, Proverbs of Heywood, xxxvii; and C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 78; 
and Collier, Annals, v. I, p. 74. 

15 A discussion of Heywood's connection with the Chapel Royal and other 
choral institutions will be found on p. 46 ff. 



6 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

service in the Chapel Royal in 1518, and the stern repetition 
of the order when hesitation was shown. 16 

The surmise that the young Heywood was attached to the 
Chapel Royal helps in a way to explain the short university 
education which Anthony a Wood says Heywood received. 
The probable manner in which he went to Oxford is suggested 
by Sharman. "At the time, then, that Heywood entered the 
chapel choir, a restricted yet honourable career was pre- 
sented to a youth of musical proficiency. He might at least 
aspire to become an 'Episteller,' or, taking holy orders, would 
in due course arrive at the full dignity of King's chaplain. 
But as a soprano voice was far more highly valued in this 
establishment than either eloquence or scholarship, an outlet 
was found for elderly choristers by draughting them off, at his 
majesty's expense, to the Universities of Oxford or Cam- 
bridge. Of this privilege we must suppose Heywood to have 
availed himself, as we find him to have been entered as a 
student at Broadgate, now Pembroke College, Oxford." 17 
The information about Heywood 's university residence is 
given by aWood; "He laid a foundation of learning in this 
university (Oxford), particularly, as it seems, in that ancient 
hostle called Broadgate's in St. Aldgate's parish." 18 If he 
was in the Chapel Royal, it is more than likely that he went 
to the university on a royal scholarship about the age of 
sixteen or seventeen, when his voice broke. Such provision 
for the singing-boys is described in a manuscript of the reign 
of Edward IV. 

And when any of these children comene to be xviij years of age, 
and their voices change, ne cannot be preferred in this chappelle, 
the nombere being full, then if they will assente, the Kynge assynethe 
them to a College of Oxeford or Cambridge of his foundation, there 

16 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. II, Nos. 4024, 4025, 4044, 4055. 
Also C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 119. 

17 Sharman, Proverbs of Heywood, xxxix. 
J8 Ant. aWood, Ath. Oxon., v. I, p. 348. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICLVN 7 

to be at fynding and studye both suffytyently, tylle the King may 
otherwise advaunce them. 19 

Heywood did not remain at the university very long, so 
aWood says. "The crabbedness of logic not suiting with his 
airy genie, he retired to his native place." As Broadgates, 
or Pembroke, College did not keep records or registers of 
students before 1570, we know nothing definite about the 
date of his residence there, or the reason for leaving before 
the completion of his studies. 20 

Heywood perhaps did not wait until his eighteenth year 
to enter Oxford, the age mentioned in the Edward IV manu- 
script above. That is somewhat late for a change of voice. 
Sixteen or seventeen was the usual age for young men to 
enter at that time, and they were referred to frequently as 
"boys." Later in the century Catholic youths were sent to 
the great universities as young as ten, in order that they 
might complete their studies before they were old enough to 
swear the oath of allegiance. 21 Heywood probably attended 
the university about the age of seventeen, and remained 
there a short time, perhaps only part of a term. When he left 
Oxford he entered the king's service, as we have seen, in the 
fall of 1514, at a salary of eightpence a day. If he was a 

19 Ms. Harleian, No. 293642. Also Sharman, Proverbs of Heywood, xxxix. 

20 Heywood's familiarity with the Oxford colleges has been noticed in his 
epigrams : 

Alas! poor fardingales must lie in the street: 
To house them, no door in the city made meet. 
Since at our narrow doors they in cannot win, 
Send them to Oxford, at Broadgates to get in. 

(Epigr. 455) 
Testons be gone to Oxford, God be their speed! 
To study in Brazennose, there to proceed! 

(Epigr. 463) 

Jerome, in Heywood's Witty and Witless, is a schoolman and perhaps 
represented the Oxford student. 

21 Swoboda, Heywood als Dramatiker, p. 11. Also Jessopp, Donne, p. 11. 



8 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

king's scholar he doubtless obtained permission from Henry 
to leave the university, and found employment immediately 
in the royal household. At this time, in 1514, the choir was 
newly organized and from this date on it became an elaborate 
musical and dramatic institution. New talent was sought and 
perhaps Hey wood was concerned in this reorganization. The 
fact that his duties and services are not specified in the 1515 
payment leaves the matter open for unlimited speculation. 
It has also been suggested that at this period Heywood be- 
came intimate with Sir Thomas More, and that he knew him 
when the Utopia was written. 22 

In any case, Heywood at this time, if not earlier, began his 
career as court musician. He was one of the court singers for 
many years, and in his lyric, "Longe have I bene a singinge 
man," he himself tells us that he has sung all parts, high and 
low, treble, tenor, counter, and bass. This is almost suffi- 
cient to convince us that he was a chorister as a boy, singing 
treble, and, as we know definitely, a "low" or adult singer 
many years at court. 23 

After 1515 there is no reference to Heywood in any extant 
records until the year 1519, when he was still at court. There 
is no reason to believe that he did not continue in the royal 
service during these intervening years, perhaps in some 
musical or dramatic capacity, possibly both. In these four 
years he had grown in favor. At the close of the Michaelmas 
term, up to Sept. 29, 1519, he received an allowance of 100s. 24 
The entry, carrying payment from the beginning of the 
quarter, June 24, 1519, reads, "Item John haywoode quarter 
wages at xx/i. by the yere . . . C.s." As in the case of the 
earlier entry, no duties are specified, but here we are not left 
in doubt, for the next record of this payment, dated Aug. 1, 

22 Swoboda, pp. 12-3. 

23 See page 130. Also Swoboda, p. 14. 

24 King's Book of Payments, Hen. VIII, Exch. T. of R. Miscl. Books, v. 
216, p. 94, p. 201. Also D. N. B.; and C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 78. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICIAN 9 

1520, reads, "Item for John Haywoode synger wages . . . 
Cs." This is the first reference we have to Hey wood as a 
singer, but it is impossible to doubt that the payment in 1519 
was for the same singing service. Very probably the duties 
of a singer, in his case, involved dramatic performances at 
court. The amount is paid regularly thereafter, for the same 
entry occurs under date of December, 1520, also in the un- 
dated record, 12th Henry VIII, 1520. 25 The payments were 
made up to the end of the record, 1521. In these distinct 
records there is no mention whatever, nor any hint shown, 
of Heywood's connection with the Chapel Royal. 

It has been generally remarked that he began his dramatic 
writing about the year 1520. This statement is made solely 
because of one reference in what was regarded as his earliest 
work, the Pardoner and Friar, which mentions Pope Leo X 
as being then alive. 26 The date of this interlude will be dis- 
cussed later. If it was written at this period, however, the 
date is no evidence against his authorship. A witty young 
man of twenty-three could easily have written this simple 
little piece, and Heywood would not have lacked skill in the 
requirements of dramatic composition at this time. His 
duties as court singer might well have encouraged such 
work, for in all probability the singer was an occasional actor. 

By this time he doubtless had made himself valuable to the 
pleasure-loving king. Bishop Bale's interesting account of 
him says that he was diligent in music and in poetry in his 
English tongue, and that he spent much time in conducting 
merry dances after court revels and banquets, and in present- 
ing pageants, plays, masks, and other "disportes." 27 A man 
who could do all these things would be sure to win the appro- 
bation of Henry, who would not fail to appreciate the value of 

26 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. Ill, pp. 407-8, 1533. 

26 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 443. Brand], Quellen, xlix ff. Collier, 
Annals, v. II, p. 385, etc. 

27 See page 58. 



10 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

a court wit, a singer and musician, and one who could assist 
him in his dramatic entertainments and royal revels. Nearly 
all the early accounts of Heywood speak of the favors which 
the king bestowed upon him. "He was in much esteem with 
King Henry VIII for the mirth and quickness of his conceits," 
says aWood, who took his passage from the Arte of English 
Poesie (1589), which was written at a time when Catholics 
were to be discounted in all things. 28 Harington says that 
Heywood "escaped hanging with his mirth," or rather by the 
favor in which he was held by the king. 29 In addition to the 
testimony of these writers, the records of the generous grants 
and payments given him by the king show the distinction 
Heywood enjoyed. 

There is no later reference to Heywood as a paid singer. 
We may assume that his duties became more and more 
varied, especially during this period of dramatic writing, but 
there could have been no sudden, radical change in his 
services. In compensation for his additional efforts he re- 
ceived an income greater than that which could have been 
given to a court singer for services so simple and occasional, 
and in this increase of income can be seen the king's growing 
friendliness. 

In February, 1521, Heywood, who is termed "the King's 
servant," received from Henry an annuity of ten marks, de- 
rived from the manors of Maxey and Torpel, Northampton- 
shire. Thomas Farthing, the former holder of this land, had 
died, and the new grant was signed at Westminster, Feb. 4th. 
There was a technical flaw in this patent, and in April, 1521, 
it was declared invalid and a new grant was made, to be 
effective upon the surrender of the earlier one, the annuity to 

28 Ant. aWood, Ath. Oxon., v. I, p. 348. 

Arte of English Poesie says, "Afterward . . . came . . . John Hey- 
wood, the Epigrammatist, who for the mirth and quicknesse of his conceits 
more then for any good learning was in him came to be well benefited by the 
king." G. Gregory Smith, Eliz. Critical Essays, v. II, p. 63. 

29 See page 40. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICIAN 11 

be received "during the pleasure of the king." 30 These ancient 
manors, situated near Peterborough, were really of one 
property, Maxey, held from the early fifteenth century 
through the Torpel descent. It came to the hands of Henry 
from Margaret, countess of Richmond. 

But Heywood did not enjoy this property long. Early in 
1525 the king bestowed this manor upon his illegitimate son 
Henry, duke of Richmond, when that five-year old boy was 
showered with many other livings and honors. Heywood 
probably held the grant from 1521 until this disposition in 
1525. The youthful duke of Richmond died shortly after 
this, and in 1527 five pounds of the income from the manors 
of Maxey and Torpel were given by the king to Blanche, wife 
of Twyford, sergeant at arms. 31 It is unlikely that Heywood 
suffered any disfavor in being thus deprived of his manors. 
The king was compelled to slight many faithful servants in 
order to afford the liberal gifts he made to his son. This 
grant of land was the first of many which Heywood received 
from the crown during his long life. 

The second gift from Henry followed quickly on the heels 
of the first. Although Heywood lost Maxey and Torpel, he 
had at least one source of ncome during this period. He 
received Maxey in February, 1521. On September 29 of the 
same year, Henry gave him, "in consideration of his true and 
faithful services," the income from the manor of Haydon, in 
Essex, which had reverted to the crown through the attainder 
of Edward, duke of Buckingham. The income was not to 
exceed seven marks annually and was to be held, during 
royal pleasure, for Heywood's life and afterwards by his 
legitimate heirs. 32 

Thus Heywood received two manorial grants in the year 
1521, the year in which records of his salary as a court singer 

30 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. Ill, pp. 445, 479. 

31 Ibid., v. IV, pt. I, p. 673; pt. II, No. 2839 (21). 

32 Brit. Mus. Ms. No. 24844, ff. 38v, 39. See Appendix No. 2, p. 159. 



12 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

vanish. These grants, however, represent increased income, 
and undoubtedly increased royal favor. Just as John Kite, 
sub-dean of the Chapel and one of Henry's favorite enter- 
tainers, was made bishop during this period of royal gener- 
osity, so Hey wood was made at least a landed gentleman. 

Most of Heywood's dramatic writings are assigned to this 
period. Unfortunately, however, nothing definite is known 
about his connection with any of the dramatic establishments 
at the court. He has been suggested as the dramatic director 
of the Chapel Royal, of the choir school of St. Paul's and some 
have proposed that he was the leader of a professional com- 
pany of independent actors, either adults or children. 33 One 
more possibility might be suggested; that Hey wood was 
associated with the king's interlude players, of which there 
were two sets retained at court. He might have directed 
them almost at any time during his court life, and have 
written some of his interludes for them to present, such as 
the Four P's and John, Tib, and Sir John. Some of his pieces 
probably were written for boy actors, but the great dif- 
ferences we find in his plays strengthen the assumption that 
he wrote for different actors, as well as for various audiences 
and times. 

The next record of Heywood's financial progress does not 
explain fully what he was doing. In "A Booke of wages paide 
monethly, quarterly, & half yerly by the King, 17 Hen. VIII," 
under the quarterly payments is the entry, "John Hey wood, 
player of the virginals . . . 6li. 13s. 4<d." u This is a large 
amount, totaling a yearly wage of much more than he 
received earlier as a singer, or later as a salaried player on the 
virginals. It is particularly unfortunate that we cannot pick 

33 See discussion, p. 46 ff. Also Chambers, Med. Stage, vol. II, p. 196; 
Feuillerat, Revels Edward & Mary, p. 288; Sharman, Proverbs of Hey wood, 
Intro.; C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 77 ff. 

34 Egerton Mss. No. 2604, f. 3; Collier, Annals, v. I, pp. 94-96; Sharman, 
Proverbs of Heywood, p. xli; C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 78. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICIAN 13 

up in the records the date of the first payment of this amount, 
though it is improbable that it could have been much before 
the beginning of the year 1526. Wallace has suggested that 
this payment was for some special court entertainment, a 
single event, and does not mention it as a regular quarterly 
income, even for the year 1526. Very probably this increased 
salary was intended by the king to compensate Heywood for 
the loss of the income from the manors of Maxey and Torpel 
which was taken from him in 1525. At all events it shows 
Heywood still enjoying royal favor in recognition of his wit, 
musical ability, and perhaps, by this time, his dramatic labors. 

Heywood the singer now becomes Heywood, "player on the 
virginals." His service as court musician lasted much longer 
as an instrumentalist than as a singer. He may have been a 
better player, or perhaps his voice left him so that he could 
no longer please the royal ear. His fingers served him better 
than his song, however, for he was a salaried player on this 
early form of spinnet for twenty-two years. Probably he 
gave up this work, a man of fifty -five years, only because his 
skill had become impaired by age. His work must have been 
somewhat of a sinecure, playing at occasional musicales for 
Henry, and later Edward, with the leisure to apply himself 
to literary and dramatic efforts. It was more of a pension 
than a task; in fact the first mention of the appointment is 
under the designation of pension. If, as it appears, he re- 
ceived 6li. 13s. 4d. in 1526 for special musical services, his 
regular office as player on the virginals began in the fall of 
1528. There is recorded the first payment of his salary, 
"upon warrant dated 8 Nov. 20 Henry VIII, for his pension 
of 10U. a year, to be paid quarterly from Michaelmas last." 35 
Thus we can set the date of Sept. 29th, 1528, as the commence- 
ment of Heywood's established position as player on the 
virginals. The Books of the King's Payments are not com- 
plete, but very frequently a record of this quarterly payment 

35 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. V, p. 306. 



14 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

of 50 shillings is found throughout the reign of Henry. 36 He 
was still a player in the time of Edward VI, and continued 
to receive the same salary as under Henry. The record of 
this regular payment ends with the year 1550. 37 

King Henry was not casual in his appreciation of music. 
He himself was a skilled singer and instrumentalist, and he 
has been praised for some notable compositions. Hall gives 
an interesting account of his activities. "From thence the 
whole courte removed to Wyndesore, then beginning his 
progresse, exercising him selfe daily in shotyng, singing, 
dauncing, wrastelyng, casting of the barre, plaiying at the 
recorders, flute, virginals, and in settying of songes (compos- 
ing), makyng of ballettes, and did set ii goodly masses, every 
of them fyve partes, whiche were song oftentimes in hys 
chapel, and afterwardes in divers other places." 38 A long list 
of the musical instruments in Henry's household is given by 
Ellis. 39 From many other sources Henry's skill as a musician, 
and particularly as a player on the virginals, has been 
praised. 40 In this, as in many other phases of Henry's char- 
acter, Heywood's gifts and disposition would naturally 
find royal approval. 

In addition to this regular work as court musician, he was 
also in demand for extra services with his instrument. For 
instance, in January, 1537, the princess Mary paid Heywood's 

36 References available in Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, are: 
1529, March, v. V, p. 309. 

1538, March, v. XIII, p. 528. 

1539, May, v. XIV, pt. II, p. 307. 

1540, May, v. XVI, p. 184. 

1541, May, v. XVI, p. 704. 

1542, Sept., v. XVII, p. 478. 
1545, Dec, v. XX, pt. II, p. 515. 

37 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 78. Also King's Book of Payments, 1-3 
Ed. VI, Exch. K. R. Bdl. 426, No. 5, and ff. 

38 Hall, Chronicle, 2 Hen. VIII. Collier, Annals, v, I, pp. 60-1. 

39 Ellis, Original Letters, Ser. 2, v. I, p. 271. 

40 Maitland, Grom's Dicty. Music, etc., v. V, p. 341. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICL\N 15 

servant 20rf. for bringing her regals from London to her 
apartments at Greenwich. 41 This shows Hey wood in some 
close relationship with the musical establishment of Mary 
at this time, but in all probability only as an incidental 
occupation, for he was still the court player for the king. 

Judging from the great favor which Heywood enjoyed 
from the young Mary, and of the many later evidences of 
friendship between them, it is likely that their mutual delight 
in music resulted in many entertainments and musicales 
which are not formally recorded in any book of reckoning. 
Mary was a skilled musician and passionately fond of playing 
on her instruments. During the first year of her reign the 
huge sum of 2233/i. 17s. Qd. was spent by her for musical 
and dramatic entertainment, chiefly for her musicians. 42 
She played well upon the virginals, and excelled on the lute 
to a surprising degree. When she was a girl, in 1525, particu- 
lar directions were given to her governess regarding practice 
on these instruments. Her mother, writing her a tender 
letter after their separation, desires her to use her virginals 
or lute, and her book of expenses shows that this request 
was not disregarded. Perhaps during the period of Mary's 
disfavor, when Heywood wrote a complimentary poem to her, 
he was closely associated with her in musical affairs. When 
her position was restored, after the death of Anne Boleyn, she 
seems to have applied herself more vigorously to her music. 
Mr. Paston is named as her teacher on the virginals, and 
Philip Van Wilder of the Privy Chamber, as instructor on the 
lute. It appears from her accounts that she was accustomed 
to take these and other instruments with her whenever she 
moved, and there are frequent entries of payments to a per- 

«"Mens' Januarij: (1536/7) 

Item geuen to Heywood servante for bringing of my Ladys grace 
Regalles from London to Grenewiehe. . . . xxd." 

Madden, Privy Purse Exp. Mary, p. 12. 

42 Collier, Annals, v. I, p. 165. 



16 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

son coining from London to tune them. 43 In her younger days 
several musicians were retained in her household, such as 
"Giles, lewter with the Princess," with wages at 40s. per 
month, and "Claude Burgens, tabaret with the Princess, 
31s." and a host of others who were engaged for special 
occasions. 44 

Even after 1550, when there is no further record of Hey- 
wood's service as player on the virginals, he was listed as 
such in Mary's accounts, with a salary much larger than he 
ever received for such work, and more than Mary's other 
virginal players were paid. In the first year of her reign, 
payment of 50li. was made to "John Heywood, player on the 
virginalles." 45 This amount seems more like a gift or a reward 
than a regular salary. At least it shows the regard Mary had 
for Heywood's services. 

In February, 1552, Heywood received 30s. "for services" 
rendered at an entertainment for Princess Elizabeth, and on 
the same evening Sebastian Westcott played before her with 
the Paul's boys, and the king's drummer and fifer were also 
rewarded. Along with the other speculations regarding Hey- 
wood's office at this event, we may suggest that perhaps he 
was there with these other musicians to complete a small 
orchestra for the singing and dancing of the children or the 
guests after the play. 46 This might possibly have been his 
function at the entertainment for Queen Elizabeth at None- 
such, August 7, 1559, for Sebastian Westcott and his Paul's 

43 Madden, Privy Purse Exp. Mary, cxxxix, etc., also note references to 
instruments, etc. in index. 

44 Collier, Annals, v. I, p. 95. 

45 Ibid, p. 165. The other players received: 

Anthony Chounter 30: 8: 4. 

Robert Bowman 12: 3: 4. 

This entry is quoted by Hawkins, Hist, of Music, v. Ill, p. 480, as though 
these were household musicians in the time of Edward VI. 

46 See also page 53. Household Acct. Princess Elizabeth, v. II, p. 37; also 
C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 84. 



EARLY LIFE— THE COURT MUSICIAN 17 

boys again are present, also drums and flutes. Even at his 
advanced age, for he was then sixty-two, the famous old 
musician could have served well as instrumentalist in the 
program. 47 

The fame which Bale and others give to Heywood as a 
musician was earned by a long career at court, extending per- 
haps from about the age of thirteen, when he probably began 
his work as chorister, down to the days of Elizabeth. Hey- 
wood was very probably a musical composer. Unquestion- 
ably he possessed sufficient skill and ability to compose 
melodies for the many songs he wrote. Bale says he was 
"musices ac rhythmicae artis in sua lingua studiosus," 48 and 
many of the foolish pastimes which the Protestant bishop 
says Heywood indulged in were doubtless these court musi- 
cales. Pitseus, who was closer to Heywood, also says, "vir 
pius, vtcumque doctus, valde ingeniosus, Musices tam 
vocalis, quam instrumentalis peritus." 49 In Heywood's 
works there are frequent allusions to his knowledge of music 
and his experience as a musician. His verses beginning, 
"Longe have I bene a singinge man," and the stanza, "The 
mean is the merry part, being sung right," 50 and other 
similar expressions in his works remind us constantly that the 
poet is also the musician. 

47 H. Machyn, Diary, p. 206. See page 62 below. 

48 See page 58 below. 

49 See Appendix No. 5, page 168. 

60 Spider and Fly, Cap. 92, Farmer ed., p. 398. 



CHAPTER II 

Court Entertainer and Catholic Partisan 

John Heywood, favored musician of the court and well 
established in a pensioned position in 1528 which lasted for 
him nearly a quarter-century, continued to extend his 
powers. He obtained influential friends and became inti- 
mately connected with them, won more grants of land from 
the king, attained a moderate degree of wealth, and became 
even more versatile in his ability to grace the entertainments 
of royalty. 

On November 8th, 1528, after having received the position 
of player on the virginals, he was further honored by an 
appointment for life as dapifer camerae or steward of the 
royal chamber. For this he received lQli., the same remuner- 
ation as for playing the virginals. The office was one of 
personal attendance upon the king, which Heywood held for 
thirty years. He surrendered it voluntarily in 1558, just 
before the death of Queen Mary. This position as much as 
that of court musician gave him a certain social prominence, 
and assured him a personal contact with the king that he did 
not neglect, as his many possessions later testify. After 
Edward VI came to the throne, on March 4th, 1552, the 
appointment was renewed and his salary was advanced to 
40/z. a year. When his friend Queen Mary reappointed him 
to this office, under date of April 5, 1555, she gave him an 
annual stipend of 50li. 1 

Heywood is now a gentleman of the court, bound to it by 

1 Exchequer of Receipt, Auditors Warrant Books, v. VIII, fol. 138b. 
Patent Rolls, 1 & 2 Philip & Mary, pt. 4, m. 16, dated Apr. 5, 1555. Also 
see C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 82. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 19 

two regular duties and, as we shall see, by further income 
from manorial grants. It would be difficult then, after 1528, 
to imagine Hey wood at the head of a group of professional 
actors whose field lay beyond the sphere of court perform- 
ances. 

About the year 1529 Heywood married Eliza Rastell, the 
daughter of John Rastell and Elizabeth More. Elizabeth 
More Rastell, Heywood's mother-in-law, was the sister of 
Sir Thomas More. Heywood's wife had two brothers, Will- 
iam and John Rastell. 2 The year 1529 is suggested as the 
latest probable date of Heywood's marriage because in 1530 
his son Ellis Heywood was born in London. The mention of 
Heywood's marriage to Eliza Rastell at once opens up an 
interesting topic for discussion, the associations of Heywood 
with Sir Thomas More, the Rastells, and the various other 
prominent figures in the large family circle which gathered 
about them. 

The early biographers of Heywood all knew that he lived 
in close friendship with More, and they made the most of it. 
None help to answer the question, When did Heywood know 
More first? It is possible that it was More who procured the 
appointment of personal attendant to the king for Heywood 
before his marriage. Langbaine and later writers suppose it 
was More who introduced Heywood to the princess Mary, 
but this is not so important a point, for if More did not 
present him to the princess, many circumstances in his life 
about the court would have brought them together. In a 
manuscript note to Speght's Chaucer, Gabriel Harvey says 
that some of Heywood's epigrams are supposed to be con- 
ceits and devices of More's. 3 

The myth that Heywood was born at North Mims is dan- 
gerous in its possibilities at this point, for it would imply that 
Heywood returned to North Mims after leaving Oxford, and 

2 Consult genealogical table, page 158. 

3 Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 373. 



20 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

from there was taken up to London by More and presented 
to the king. This is all very logical but not true. 4 In June, 
1525, More played an important part in the elaborate 
pageants which were given in honor of Henry's natural son 
when he was made Duke of Richmond. It is most likely that 
Hey wood was also an active figure in these entertainments, 
and probably the two met at this time, if not at court enter- 
tainments before this date. 

Heywood's father-in-law, John Rastell, was one of the 
most prominent printers of his day, and it is likely that Hey- 
wood knew him in London some years before his marriage. 
He was, like Heywood, an Oxford man, and later entered 
Lincoln's Inn and practiced law with success. About 1520 
he moved his press and his "Sign of the Mermaid" to a house 
"next Paul's Gate," and there published legal text-books and 
other volumes which had a large sale in the inns of court. 
In 1530 he was drawn into the religious controversies then 
raging. He entered decidedly on the Catholic side, writing 
and printing his New Boke of Purgatory in defense of Roman 
doctrine. This was answered by John Fryth, who argued so 
well that he converted Rastell to Protestantism. This lost 
him nearly all his business and many of his friends, as he 
complains to Cromwell in a letter of 1536. He gave up print- 
ing probably early in this decade, for there are no books 
known to exist printed by him later than 1530. He evi- 
dently turned his print shop over to Leonard Andrewe, who 
may have been a relative of his. 5 

John Rastell's interest in dramatic productions increases 
our interest in him. He was the publisher of such early works 
as the Interlude of the Four Elements, Interlude of Women, Play 
of Lucretia, Skelton's Magnificence, and the Gentleness and 

4 The most elaborate statement of this view is in Biographica Dramatica, 
v. I, pt. I, p. 328. See also Snell, Age of Transition, v. II, p. 12; Swoboda, 
Brandl, etc. 

6 Duff, Printers, etc., pp. 156, 183 ff. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 21 

Nobility, which has been assigned to Heywood. 6 In addition 
to these evidences of dramatic interest, he was extremely fond 
of giving plays at his home, as we shall see immediately. The 
lawsuit concerning his theatrical costumes in 1534 shows that 
he was in the habit of subletting his print shop and retiring 
to his house at Finsbury for months at a time. The Case of 
Rastell vs. Walton is described by Chambers : 

"Rastell, going on a visit to France about 1525, had left 
with Walton a number of players' garments. These are fully 
described. They were mostly of say or sarcenet, and the 
tailor, who with the help of Rastell's wife had made them, 
valued them at 20s. apiece. Walton failed to restore them, 
and for some years let them on hire, to his own profit. Evi- 
dence to this effect was given by John Redman, stationer, 
and by George Mayler, merchant tailor, and George Birche, 
coriar, two of the king's players. These men had played in 
the garments themselves and had seen them used in 'stage 
pleyes' when the king's banquet was at Greenwich (1527). 
They had been used at least twenty times in stage plays 
every summer and twenty times in interludes every winter, 
and Walton had taken, as the 'common custome' was, at a 
stage play 'sumtyme x\d., sumetyme ijs., as they couth 
agree, and at an interlude viijd. for every tyme.' Rastell 
had brought a previous suit in the mayor's court, but could 
only receive 35s. 9d., at which the goods had been officially 
appraised. But they were then 'rotten and tome,' whereas 
Rastell alleged that they were nearly new when delivered to 
Walton and worth 20 marks. Walton relied on the official 
appraisement, and had a counter-claim for 40.s. balance of a 
bill for 50s. costs 'in making of stage for playes in Restall's 
grounde beside Fyndesbury, in tymbre, boured, nayle, lath, 

6 C. Wallace, Evolution, pp. 16-7, says that this piece was written by 
Cornish, apparently because Bale in his revised Catalogus changes "reliquit" 
to "primum edidit" in listing Rastell's work. There is no reason given for 
assigning it to Cornish. 



22 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

sprigge and other thyngs.' He held the clothes against pay- 
ment of this amount, which Rastell challenged." 7 

It is probable, too, that Rastell had some stage arrange- 
ment at North Minis, and presented theatricals there. To 
his interest in dramatics we may attribute his printing sev- 
eral interludes and plays by Medwall, Skelton and Hey wood. 8 
Heywood and he were perhaps first drawn into friendship by 
their common interests. This enthusiasm for dramatics in- 
creasing, Rastell probably invited Heywood to his home in 
the country and encouraged him to write interludes for pre- 
sentation there. Certainly fabliau-farce of the type of John, 
Tib, and Sir John and the Four P's might well have been 
given on Rastell's private stage. This activity would bring 
Heywood into contact with More, if they were not already 
acquainted. More himself doubtless became interested in 
the dramatic efforts of his brother-in-law, and participated in 
them. Roper tells of More's delight in such performances 
and of his ability to engage in impromptu acting. 9 If this 
speculation is not too wild, it is possible that Heywood met 
Eliza, the daughter of his host, on such visits, and that this 
friendship developed into matrimony, perhaps in the year 
1529. 

The matter of Heywood's owing property at North Mims 
has already been mentioned. Sir Thomas More's father, Sir 

7 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, pp. 183-4. 

8 Duff, Chap. 13, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. II, p. 328. 

9 Roper, Life & Death of More, p. 1, tells of his stepping into the midst of 
the players and acting a part impromptu. More, as a page, won a reputation 
for his skill in improvising a scene; Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 193. Bale 
and Erasmus tell of many youthful comedies written by More, some treating 
the friars and their faults with a broad satire, as Heywood did also. See 
Cresacre More's Life of Sir Thomas More. M. W. Wallace, Birthe of Hercules, 
p. 25: "Sir Thomas More's Utopia contains a reference to the occasions 
' when one of Plautus's comedies is on the stage, and a company of servants 
are acting their parts,' and the reference is of such a nature that it would 
seem to justify the conclusion that such an event was by no means un- 
common at that time." 



COURT ENTERTAINER 23 

John More, owned the manor of Gobions in the parish of 
North Minis, and left it to his wife, with the remainder for 
her son. Documents concerning this property unfortunately 
are almost completely lacking, but doubtless this was a 
considerable estate. It is probable that Thomas More's 
sister, Elizabeth, received a portion of it when she married 
John Rastell, and thus transferred some of this property into 
the Rastell family. In this way Rastell's daughter Eliza 
could have inherited some land at North Mims after her 
father's death in 1536, which would account for Heywood's 
owning land there, or at least his living there for a time. The 
only other land attached to the Heywood name at North 
Mims was that which Rastell's son William gave to Ellis 
Heywood by bequest in 1564; "Item volo quod idem Elizeus 
gaudeat et habeat sibi et haeredibus suis praedium meum in 
Northmymys, in comitatu Hertsfordie in Anglia," etc. 10 
On Sir Thomas More's attainder in 1534, Sir John More's 
widow was expelled from Gobions. When Mary came to the 
throne, the manor was restored to the widow of Sir Thomas's 
son, Anne Cresacre. 11 

The More-Rastell-Heywood circle included many prom- 
inent persons who were closely related to this family. George 
Cavendish, the intimate secretary and biographer of Car- 
dinal Wolsey, married Margery Kemp, daughter of Sir 
Thomas Kemp of Spainhall, Essex, who was a niece of Sir 
Thomas More's. 12 There was also Sir Giles Alington, one of 
Alexander Barclay's early patrons, for whom Barclay trans- 
lated the Mirrour of Good Manners. 13 Giles Alington married 
the daughter of Mistress Alice Middleton who was More's 

10 See Appendix No. 4, page 162. Also Bang's note, Englische Studien, band 
38, p. 246. 

11 The Genealogical Chart, p. 158, will be helpful in the matter of Heywood's 
relations. Also see D. N. B. for general information concerning these people. 

12 Cavendish, Wolsey, p. 9 ff . 

13 Barclay, Ship of Fools, Jamieson ed. v. I, pp. xxxix, xli. 



24 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

second wife. She is mentioned in nearly all the biographies of 
More, and seems to have been a "worthy woman" who served 
More best by being a good governess to his three young 
daughters and a housekeeper in his home. He married her, 
by special dispensation, within a month after the death of his 
first wife, Jane Colte, in 1511. Mistress Alice was unfor- 
tunate in not being able to see the point of many of Sir 
Thomas's witty sallies, and by this defect encouraged him to 
make her the butt of many jests. In a racy little book called 
The XII Mery Jests of the Wydow Edyth, by Walter Smith, 
a servant in More's household at Chelsea, is told how this 
widow-adventuress Edith "deceived three young men of 
Chelsea that were servants to Sir Thomas More." Many 
members of the household are mentioned in this intimate 
story, and among them is "master Alengton." Hazlitt sug- 
gests he might be Robert Alynton, author of Libellus Sophista- 
rum, u bvit there is no doubt that this is a clear reference to Sir 
Giles Alington, living at Chelsea with the Mores at this time. 
William Roper, of Well-hall, parish of Eltham, Kent, an- 
other member of this extraordinary group, married More's 
eldest daughter, the favorite Margaret, or Meg. He lived 
with More for over sixteen years, and wrote a charming and 
familiar biography of his father-in-law. He died the same 
year as John Heywood, in 1578. 15 Dr. John Clement also 
married into Sir Thomas More's family, winning the hand of 
the accomplished Margaret Giggs, the adopted daughter of 
More, frequently referred to as his niece. Almost all these 
persons, or their children, were swept into Flanders by the 
Protestant reaction which came with Elizabeth's accession. 
With the exception of John Rastell, all of them were faithful 
to the Catholic cause, and, as we shall see, they were not 
entirely passive in their religious convictions. 

14 W. C. Hazlitt, Old Eng. Jest Books, v. Ill, p. 76. 

15 See Introduction to Roper, Life & Death of More, also Hazlitt, Old 
Eng. Jest Books, v. Ill, p. 77. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 25 

William Rastell, born about 1508, a student at Oxford in 
1525, was Heywood's dramatic publisher. He carried on his 
father's printing business, publishing legal and controversial 
works, especially those of Sir Thomas More. While printing, 
in 1532 he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1539. 
He was a staunch Catholic throughout his life. During the 
reign of Edward VI he retired with many others to Louvain, 
to return when Mary came to the throne in 1553, and by her 
favor rose rapidly in the legal profession. In 1558 he was 
made a judge of the Queen's Bench, which office he retained 
until 1563. He then went into exile, again to Louvain, where 
he died, Aug. 27, 1565. After he gave up printing he con- 
tinued to edit law books, and it was he who supervised the 
publication of More's complete English works, published by 
Richard Tottel in 1557 under the encouragement of Queen 
Mary. 

These are some of the persons, then, with whom Heywood 
became intimately associated by his marriage to Eliza Rastell. 
It is somewhat amusing to notice some of the errors made by 
the earlier biographers of this group, and it is highly impor- 
tant that these errors be corrected. Izaac Walton, in his 
account of John Donne, says that "by his mother he was 
descended of the family of the famous and learned Sir Thomas 
More ... as also from that worthy and laborious judge 
Rastell." 16 Jessopp, building on this sandy foundation, says, 
"Elizabeth, the daughter of William Rastell and Winifred 
(Clement) his wife, married John Heywood." 17 But William 
was Elizabeth's brother, not her father. If Jessopp had 
looked up the dates, he would have noticed that William 
Rastell was born in 1508, and his "grandson" Ellis Heywood, 
was born in 1530, which would give William his first grand- 
child at the age of twenty -two! But the unfortunate result 
of this is that Gosse, following Walton and Jessopp, has made 

16 Walton, Donne, xvii. 

17 Jessopp, John Donne, p. 3. 



26 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

his biographical chapter on Donne's ancestors completely 
awry, a serious defect in a standard work. 18 In a similar way 
simple mathematics is disregarded by Swoboda in attempting 
to show that Heywood married when he was an old man. In 
an epigram 19 Heywood says, "My wife hath now a child at 
four score and ten!" A friend expresses fitting surprise, but 
the reply shows it was at four score and ten quarters, not full 
years. Swoboda holds this to have been written between 
1553 and 1556, when Heywood was nearly sixty, and hence 
his wife about twenty-two, he being old enough to be her 
father. But Swoboda forgets that in that case Ellis Heywood 
would be about four years older than his own mother. 20 

And so, having accounted for many of Heywood's most 
intimate friends and the circle of influence about him, and 
seeing him firmly established at court, a husband and a father 
by 1530, we may again take up the account of his activities 
during this important decade. 

On January 10th, 1533, there appears in the king's accounts 
a list of his New Year's gifts. The long roll records his favors 
to his nobility, the ladies of the court, the bishops, his 
gentlemen, and many commoners, among whom are various 
artisans employed at court. To a large group of individuals, 
including one Heywood, he makes gifts of plate. No first 
name is mentioned, but there is no reasonable doubt that this 
was John Heywood, for we know him to be the king's musi- 
cian and personal attendant at this time. 21 

This year of 1533 is an important one. It was the year in 
which Archbishop Cranmer pronounced the divorce of Henry 
from Catherine, the year of Anne Boleyn's exaltation, and 
the birth of her daughter, Princess Elizabeth. With the birth 
of Elizabeth came the fall and degradation of Princess Mary, 

18 Ed. Gosse, John Donne, Chap. I. 

19 Epigr. No. 416, Farmer ed. p. 242. 

20 Swoboda, Heywood als Dramatiker, p. 9. 

21 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. VI, p. 14. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 27 

who until this time held her miniature court, with some 
show of pomp, away from the sight of her father. After 
proclaiming Anne Boleyn's daughter a princess, Henry or- 
dered Mary to give up her title and bestow it upon Elizabeth. 
She refused to do this, and her father was furious. She was 
not permitted to approach the king, was kept in the country, 
and her household and retinue were dissolved. Several per- 
sons were committed to the tower for holding intercourse with 
her and for styling her "Princess" after the prohibition against 
it. 22 

Quite naturally, to Catholics of the More-Heywood group, 
the divorce and the abuse of the young Catholic princess was 
a provocation which stirred them greatly. It began a lively 
animosity against Cranmer which, we shall see, brought much 
trouble to Heywood but ultimately gave him the satisfaction 
of seeing this arch-Protestant burned to death. From the 
marriage of Anne Boleyn dates the beginning of Sir Thomas 
More's downfall. 

The year 1533 is also the date of publication of four plays 
by Heywood, from the press of his brother-in-law William 
Rastell. These plays, The Pardoner and Friar, The Play of 
Love, The Play of the Weather, and John, Tib, and Sir John, 
will be discussed later. A loyal Catholic bringing out his 
works in this period of anti-Roman excitement would not 
venture to put his name to one which contained any satire 
against his own church. The time was not auspicious for 
Catholics to criticise, but the moment was very favorable to 
a work poking fun at Catholic institutions, more of wit than 
serious arraignment, because of its selling possibilities. 
Surely Heywood and Rastell were acute enough to perceive 
this. Heywood's name has lived because of his dramatic 
work, but he was not primarily a dramatist. He probably 
wrote many interludes and farces which are not preserved 
to us, but no matter how large the amount, we know his life 

22 Madden, Privy Purse Exp. Mary, Intro. Memoir. 



28 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

was not mainly one of play-writing, or acting. It would 
perhaps be possible to regard him chiefly as a musician. 

At this period of his friendship with More and his occupa- 
tion at court we can best postulate his introduction to Prin- 
cess Mary which is so universally mentioned by his biogra- 
phers. Hey wood no doubt had appeared before Mary fre- 
quently, previous to 1533, in connection with many court 
entertainments. But at this time, when she was decidedly 
out of favor and when all Catholics were wary, More could 
have used his easy access to the princess to encourage the 
friendship which we know existed later between these two. 

There is fortunately preserved a poem by Heywood ad- 
dressed to Mary, published only in part in TotteVs Miscellany. 
When it was printed, the last stanzas, which disclose the 
identity of the poet's lady, were omitted. 23 This poem was 
written, perhaps as a birthday offering to the princess, in 
February, 1534, when Mary was eighteen years of age. It 
was composed when she was in deepest disfavor, and from 
what we know of Heywood's later career, such loyalty and 
sympathetic attention were not neglected by Mary. In this 
piece he praises her beauty, her wit and gravity, her mirth 
and modesty, and exalts her quite above all women; it was 
courtly, and effective. 

The year 1534 also was important for Heywood. Its events 
must have troubled his heart. The Act of Supremacy lost for 
More the chancellorship, and he was attainted for treason. 
His resolute refusal to forsake the Catholic doctrine and 
submit to Henry cost him his life in the following year. Hey- 
wood's conduct in the events of this year is not known, but 
surely he was not inactive. 

23 Particularly the following: 

And Mary was her name, sweet ye, 

With these graces indued; 
At eighteen years so flourished she: 
So doth his mean conclude. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 29 

When, in 1535, More was condemned to death, Roper tells 
that Sir Thomas Pope, More's "singular good friend," brought 
the news of his condemnation to him. " 'The king is content 
already,' quoth Master Pope, 'that your wife, children, and 
other friends shall have liberty to be present thereat.' " 24 
Hey wood probably was present at the execution. Sanders 
tells a gruesome tale of More's favorite daughter, Margaret 
Roper, who with Margaret Giggs Clement visited him just 
before the execution. Meg gave her father his last kiss, and 
she herself attended to the body after it was beheaded. 
The bloody shirt of More was long kept as a relic in the 
family. 25 When the Emperor Charles heard of More's 
execution he sent for the English ambassador, Sir Thomas 
Elliott, and told him he would rather have lost the best city 
of his dominions than such a counselor. Roper, after telling 
about this incident, adds, "Which matter was by the same 
Sir Thomas Eliott to my selfe, to my wife, to Master Clement 
and his wife, to Master John Heywood and his wife, and unto 
divers others his friends accordingly reported." 26 

In this same year, 1535, Heywood's second son, Jasper, 
was born in London. There are three other children, all 
daughters, still to be accounted for. Elizabeth Donne, who 
was born about 1540, will be considered later. In the will of 
William Rastell there is reference to Johanna Stubbs and 
Elizabeth Marvin, who are sisters of Ellis Heywood. "Item 
do et lego Johannae Stubbis, sorori dicti Elizei, cathenam 
meam auream majorem, ac annulum meum aureum forma 
antiquissima cum rubino infixo; Item do et lego Elizabetae 
Marvin, alii sorori dicti Elizei, annulum meum aureum cum 
effigie capitis mortui," etc. 27 Sanderus also refers to a Joanna 

24 Roper, Life & Death of More, p. 55. 

!6 Nich. Sanderus, De Visibili Monorchia Ecclesiae, 1571, cited by Bang, 
Englische Studien, band 38, p. 235. 

26 Roper, Life & Death of More, p. 57. 

27 See appendix No. 4, p. 164. 



30 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Stubbs as one of many Catholic women listed under the 
heading, Graves matronae, oh fidem aliquando aut vinctae, aut 
exules. zs Concerning Elizabeth Marvin nothing more is 
known. It is curious that Hey wood should have two daugh- 
ters named Elizabeth. This was also his wife's name, and 
her mother's. 29 The date of birth of these two daughters is 
not known, but in all probability they were born between 
1531 and 1539. 

The period of uneasiness for Catholics such as Heywood 
came to an end in 1536. In May of that year Anne Boleyn 
was executed, and from that time on a very skillfully man- 
aged program of reconciliation was evolved by the friends of 
the princess Mary. Gradually she reinstated herself in 
Henry's favor, and one by one her royal dignities were again 
restored. In September, Robert Aske organized the famous 
"Pilgrimage of Grace," involving some 30,000 Catholics, in 
protest against the Protestant heretics and more especially 
against the dissolution of the monasteries. 30 The execution of 
Sir Thomas More and the Pilgrimage of Grace were two 
events which must have reacted deeply upon Heywood. 
Perhaps, indeed, they caused the inception of his longest work, 
the Spider and the Fly, which he tells us was begun about this 
time, but was postponed to a more peaceful day for its com- 
pletion. 

In January, 1537, occurs the entry already mentioned from 
Mary's domestic accounts. Hey wood's servant received 
twenty pence for bringing her regals from London to Green- 
wich. This indicates a close relationship between Heywood 
and Mary at this period. It is even suggested that Heywood 
may have been one of her household. It would not be 
unlikely that Mary "borrowed" him from the court for a 

28 Bang, in Englische Studien, band 38, p. 236. She is No. 1958. 

29 Cf. the name of Heywood's son, Elizeus or Ellis. 

30 A full account of this event, from the Catholic point of view, will be 
found in Dodd's Church Hist, of Eng., v. I, p. 263 ff . 



COURT ENTERTAINER 31 

time, at least, when he was not needed for special duties. 31 
There are, of course, no documents to support this assump- 
tion. 

But whether Heywood was in Mary's retinue or not, there 
is no doubt concerning their friendship. In March, 1538, for 
instance, we find in her accounts the entry, "Item geuen to 
Haywood playeing an enterlude with his Children bifore my 
lady s grace . . . xls." 32 The possibilities that this and other 
references to "Heywood's children" suggest, will be discussed 
later. One thing to be emphasised here is that Heywood 
did not confine his dramatic interests and activities to any 
particular period or decade. His dramatic period has gener- 
ally been assigned to the decade preceding the publication of 
his interludes in 1533. More than twenty years later than 
this, however, we shall see him still involved in court enter- 
tainments given by children. 

One highly important dramatic entertainment given by 
Heywood seems to have escaped the notice of students of this 
period. Chambers refers to it, but unfortunately says, "In 
1539, Wolsey paid him for a masque of Arthur's Knights, or 
Divine Providence, at court." 33 It was Cromwell who paid 
Heywood for this event; Wolsey had been dead since 1530. 
This entertainment, mentioned in the king's Household 
Accounts with scanty information and detail, helps greatly to 
explain Bale's description of Heywood's duties, "conducting 
dances after revels and banquets, presenting pageants, plays, 
masks, and similar pastimes." Little has been said about Hey- 
wood's connection with court masks and pageants, and yet 
these more undramatic forms of court entertainment were 
fully as important in the royal "disportes" as the farces and 
interludes, not to include the moralities, which have at- 
tracted more attention. This clear notice of Heywood as a 

31 Pollard, Gayley Representative Eng. Comedies, v. I, p. 3. 

32 Madden, Privy Purse Exp. Mary, p. 62. 

33 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 443. 



32 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

director of court shows opens up the way for speculation 
concerning similar activity at various other times in his long 
service. 

In Cromwell's accounts, under date of February 11, 1539, 
payment is recorded to "Christopher the Myllyoner, for stuff 
of the mask of King Arthur's Knights. . . . 1QU. 17s. 
lid.," and for his labor and workmen, 3li. On Feb. 12th 
payment was made to John Dymoke for eleven copper plates, 
"and other necessaries for my Lord's mask," and for comfits 
when the lords dined with my Lord, amounting to 9li. 2s. 
Qd. The painter "that made all the hobbyhorses and the 
other things thereto belonging," received SSli. 17 s. Qd. on 
Feb. 20th, and on the same date "Heywoodes costs" were paid, 
amounting to 5li. 10s. 5d., while Mistress Vaughan was paid 
for the things bought of her for the masks, Qli. 7s. Qd. On 
Feb. 22nd the bargemen "that carried Heywoodes mask to 
the court and home again," received 16s. 8d. The last entry 
pertaining to this entertainment is payment to Christopher 
the Mylyoner "for trimming of Divine Providence when she 
played before the King," of 21s. Id., and for "night-capes" 
for my Lord and others, 33s. 34 

From the properties mentioned — hobby-horses, night-capes, 
copper plates (for squibs?) — this show appears to have all the 
characteristics of the regular court mask at this time, with the 
extravagance of costume and setting and the dancing of the 
masked gentlemen of the court. Heywood is here shown 
directly connected with something far different from the sim- 
ple interludes and farces with which he is usually associated. 

The amount of property Heywood accumulated and held 
an interest in during his lifetime is unusually large. With 
one nearly fatal exception, he enjoyed consistent favor from 
the king. In 1539 there is a letter addressed to him by John 
Whederykke, clerk, former abbott of St. Osith's, which is at- 
tached to a roll of five pages of writing, all concerning a farm 

34 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. XIV, pt. II, p. 340. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 33 

that formerly belonged to the monastic house which had 
been disbanded. It would be interesting to know the feelings 
of so faithful a Catholic as Heywood, holding monastic land 
to his own profit at the expense of his Church. Here he is 
addressed as 'John Heywood, Gentleman' '; his position won by 
his attendance upon Henry, and perhaps also as a landed 
proprietor. 35 

In the next year the king granted Heywood a lease on 
Broke Hall, Essex, for twenty-one years at a rent of 10/i. 
and 2s. 'increase.' This property came to the hands of the 
king by the attainder of Thomas Cromwell, late earl of Essex. 
The rent is obviously a low one, and doubtless Heywood 
made a considerable profit by letting it. This grant is dated 
from Windsor Castle, Nov. 21, 1540. 36 

Perhaps the most interesting of Heywood's famous children 
was his daughter Elizabeth, who married John Donne and 
who was the mother of Dr. John Donne, the illustrious poet. 
She was born in the year 1540, and was probably the youngest 
of the family. She lived some ninety-two years, married the 
elder John Donne in 1563, by him had six children, and at his 
death married a certain Symmings. Upon being widowed the 
second time she married Richard Rainsforth (or Rainsford), 
and outlived him to become a tender burden to her son when 
he was Dean of St. Paul's. She had enjoyed considerable 
property which came to her first husband through the Lewin 
legacy, but lost it and never after seems to have been finan- 
cially independent. Her son's letters to her in her old age 
make constant reference to her hard and stormy life and fre- 
quently to her "contracted estate." She seems to have lived 
abroad at some time, which suggests that she may have 
gone to visit her father in the Low Countries when he was in 
exile. She was regarded as a persistent and stubborn papist, 
especially defiant when she lived at St. Paul's Deanery with 

35 Brewer, Letters & Papers, Hen. VIII, v. XIV, pt. I, p. 577. 
» Ibid., v. XVI, p. 172. 



34 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

her son, about 1624, and frequently was an embarrassment to 
him in ecclesiastical affairs. She visited and relieved her 
brother Jasper when he was imprisoned in the Tower in 1584 
for his activity as head of the Jesuit mission. She was, it is 
said, despoiled of her wealth for non-conformity in Eliza- 
beth's reign, but lived to see the stern laws relaxed under 
James. Possibly she took her son John Donne to see old 
Heywood in exile on the continent, for it is held that Donne 
was educated as a Catholic in Flanders. 37 

Another reference to Heywood is found in the year follow- 
ing, 1541, when a reversion was granted to Elizabeth and 
Morgan Phillip, the king's goldsmith, among other property, 
on a tenement and its appurtenances in tenure of John 
Haywoode, formerly leased to a Thomas Young, in the 
parish of St. Peter in Woodstreet; dated from Westminster, 
Sept. 12, 1541. 38 

It is interesting to recall that Heywood, in his desire to 
advance himself at court, was not above insidious attack upon 
one who rivaled him in royal favor. Master Will Somer, the 
king's jester, is used by him in his dramatic debate Witty 
and Witless, as the best example of the witless fool. He refers 
to him as "Sot Somer," or says directly, "Somer is a sot." 
There is no compliment intended in thus advertising the royal 
jester. Somer was an important figure notwithstanding his 
undignified occupation. Henry was greatly attached to him, 
and Somer is included in the portrait of Henry in the Royal 
Psalter which the king used. 39 He was employed by Ed- 
ward VI to direct a mask at Christmas-tide, 155 1, 40 and be- 
came so well-known as to serve as a by -word for a gay fellow. 41 

37 Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. IV, p. 200. Jessopp, Donne. Ed. Gosse, John 
Donne, esp. his letters to his mother. 

38 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. XVI, p. 576. 

39 See frontispiece, Ellis, Original Letters, Ser. I, v. I. 

40 Feuillerat, Revels Edw. & Mary, p. 73. 

41 As in the play Misogonus. Additional information regarding him may 
be found in Farmer, Dramatic Writings Heywood, p. 267. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 35 

The most likely cause of Heywood's splenetic handling of 
Somer was his envy and jealousy, for Sonier was perhaps even 
more intimate with the king than Heywood, and doubtless 
Hey wood judged his own services at court, musical and other- 
wise, to be worth more advancement and appreciation than 
that given to a professional fool. 

One of the most outstanding episodes in the life of John 
Heywood resulted from his active participation in plots to 
hinder the spread of Protestantism. The present sources of 
information concerning a plot against Archbishop Cranmer, 
in which we shall presently see Heywood involved, are largely 
from Strype and Foxe — both notably Protestant in tone — 
and some allowance must be made for the bias of the his- 
torians. 

Stephen Gardiner, the pro-Roman bishop of Winchester, 
sought the overthrow of his "constant adversary" Archbishop 
Cranmer of Canterbury. 42 In 1543 the prebendaries and other 
clergy of Canterbury who were "addicted to the pope" care- 
fully prepared a long bill of charges against Cranmer for not 
reporting certain violations of the Six Articles, which at that 
time the king was anxious to have strictly enforced. These 
Six Articles, because of their strict provisions and penalties, 
were termed commonly "the whip with six strings." ^ They 
were helpful in every way to the cause of the Catholics who 
had succeeded in having them instituted in April, 1540. 
They provided, under six heads, that the dogma of transub- 
stantiation be universally accepted, that the communion in 
both kinds was not necessary, that the priesthood must ad- 
here to the rule of celibacy, that all vows of chastity and 
widowhood must be observed, that private masses were desir- 
able and should be continued, and that auricular confession 
was expedient and necessary. 

Quite naturally, then, a Protestant so liberal as Cranmer 

42 See Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, Chap. 26. 

43 Foxe, Acts & Monuments, v. II, p. 371 ff. 



36 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

would not report all slight violations of these articles which 
were committed in his see. Indeed, it would have been im- 
possible for him to know of many of these violations. Bishop 
Gardiner, therefore, encouraged the collection of a great body 
of evidence and gossip, all tending to condemn Cranmer for 
heresy. Germain Gardiner, nephew of the Bishop of Win- 
chester, was one of the chief agents in the collection of this 
book of accusations. "The chief witnesses and persons con- 
cerned as vouchers and informers were Roper, Balthazar a 
chirurgeon, Heywood, Moor, Bechinsal, Germain Gardiner." 44 

Not long after Easter, 1543, this document passed through 
the hands of the privy council to the king himself. Henry 
immediately was supicious of the game and did not give up 
his archbishop into the hands of the Catholics. Strype writes : 
"So he put the book of articles in his sleeve; and passing one 
evening in his barge, by Lambeth-bridge, the archbishop 
standing at the stairs to do his duty to his majesty, he called 
him into the barge to him; and, accosting him with these 
words, 'Oh my chaplain, now I know who is the greatest 
heretic in Kent,' communicated to him these matters, shew- 
ing him the book of articles against him and his chaplains, 
and bad him peruse it." 45 

The king appointed Cranmer himself to head a commission 
which should investigate the whole matter. A copy of the 
book of accusations against Cranmer, prepared by the Catho- 
lics, is preserved, and in it is a schedule of questions for the 
examination of Cranmer, should he be held for examination 
by the king. One of the interrogatories asks what commu- 
nication by word or writing was had by Cranmer with Hey- 
wood and the others mentioned by Strype. This same inter- 
rogatory is repeated further along in the manuscript, as if 
designed to bring forth different evidence relating to another 
matter. Nothing touching Heywood 's testimony can be 

44 Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, v. I, p. 259. 

45 Ibid, v. I, p. 261. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 37 

gleaned from this material. Perhaps his contribution was 
some inadvertent remarks made to him by Cranmer at court, 
which could now seriously be turned against him. 46 Dr. 
Clement, the husband of Margaret Giggs, adopted daughter 
of Sir Thomas More, is also employed as a witness and is men- 
tioned in this manuscript. The "Mr. Moor" who is one of the 
witnesses, is John More, son of Sir Thomas; and Roper is his 
well-known son-in-law who wrote his biography. Thus we 
see Hey wood, with members of the More family circle and 
other Catholics of the most powerful group, carrying on the 
fight which the chancellor himself had waged against Pro- 
testantism. 

Cranmer in his investigations discovered a widely -organ- 
ized plot. Many of the accusers confessed their share in the 
conspiracy, and evidently did not hesitate to tell what they 
could of the schemes of the other men. Cranmer then con- 
ducted a raid to the apartments of several men involved, and 
procured many incriminating letters. These were sent to 
the king, who was angered and wished promptly to punish 
the men who had so nearly accomplished Cranmer's fall. 
"In fine, divers of the chief of the knot were committed to 
prison, where they remained till the next year, some more 
closely confined than others; all during the archbishop's 
pleasure. All that the archbishop required of them was 
repentance and recantation, and an ingenuous confession of 
their faults and falseness to him. Abiding for some time under 
affliction, their spirits began to mollify ; and then by supplica- 
tory letters to the archbishop, they begged his pardon, made 
their confessions, and desired their liberty." 47 Parliament 
was then in session, and the Catholic party secured for the 
king a subsidy which he desired, in order to soften him and 
to gain liberty and a general pardon for its imprisoned friends. 

46 Mss. Vol. 128, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. See also Brewer, 
Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. XVIII, pt. II, pp. 297-8. 

47 Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, v. I, p. 267. 



38 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Heywood must have been in this group which suffered im- 
prisonment in 1543. In tracing the history of some of the 
others in this party of accusation, we again meet with some 
definite notice of him. "Germain Gardiner was a year after 
hanged, drawn and quartered, as a traitor, for denying the 
king's supremacy. And the Bishop of Winchester after this 
never had favour or regard of the king more. And Heywood, 
another of the crew of informers and witnesses, was con- 
demned for treason with Gardiner; but making a recanta- 
tion, his life was spared." 48 His indictment, preserved in the 
record of sessions held at Westminster on Friday, Feb. 15, 
1544, reads: 

"The Jury say upon their oath that John Heywood, late of London, 
gentleman, John Ireland, late of Eltham in the county of Kent, 
clerk, John Larke, late of Chelsea in the county of Middlesex, 
clerk, and Germain Gardiner, late of Southwark in the county of 
Surrey, gentleman, not weighing the duties of their allegiance, nor 
keeping God Almighty before their eyes, but seduced by the instiga- 
tion of the Devil, falsely, maliciously, and traitorously, like false 
and wicked traitors against the most Serene and Christian Prince, 
our Lord Henry VHI, by the grace of God King of England, France 
and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and upon Earth Supreme Head 
of the English and Irish Church, choosing, wishing, desiring and 
cunningly machinating, inventing, practising and attempting — 
that is, each of them by himself falsely, maliciously, etc., choosing, 
wishing, etc., and attempting — together with many other false 
traitors unknown in confederacy with them — to deprive our said 
King, Henry VIII, of his royal dignity, title and name of 'Supreme 
Head of the English and Irish Church, ' which has been united and 
annexed to his Imperial Crown by the laws and proclamations of 
this his realm of England: (this they have attempted) falsely and 
traitorously by words, writings and deeds, which are notorious and 
public. Moreover, that falsely and traitorously, and contrary to 
the duty of their allegiance (they attempted) to depose and deprive 
the same lord our King of his Majesty, state, power and royal 

48 Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, v. I, p. 269. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 39 

dignity, and also, falsely and traitorously, with all their force and 
power (endeavored) to subvert, frustrate, and annihilate the good 
and praiseworthy statutes and ordinances of our aforesaid lord the 
King, made and provided for the state, properties, government, and 
rule of this his said realm of England." 49 

Hey wood, of course, was found guilty of treason. This is 
shown by the royal grant of April 12, 1544, appointing a 
commission to take the account of Sir Richard Southwell, one 
of the General Surveyors, relative to money, plate, jewels, 
corn, cattle, etc., received by him, w r bich came to the king by 
the deaths of Richard Nyke, bishop of Norwich, and of Sir 
George Lawson, and by the attainders of Germain Gardiner, 
late of London, and John Heywood, late of London, and sev- 
eral others. 50 

In April, then, Heywood, with Gardiner and others, was in 
prison awaiting sentence for his treason. Further reference 
to him as a traitor occurs in a grant of pardon given to one 
of the unfortunates on April 24th. This pardon was bestowed 
upon "John More, of Chelsith, Midd.," son of Sir Thomas 
More, and he is excused for "all treasonable words with the 
detestable traitors, Germain Gardiner, John Heywood," 
and others, "in wishing ill to the king and arguing against the 
King's supremacy, and all concealments of treason." 51 

The next record in this affair is much brighter for Heywood. 
A grant dated from Westminster, June 26, 1544, gives to 
"John Heywode, late of London, alias of Northmymmes, 
Herts.," a full and general pardon. This pardon carried w r ith 
it a complete restoration of all Heyw T ood's lands and annui- 
ties. 52 But the price he had to pay for his release and pardon 
was a public confession and recantation before the citizens of 
London at Paul's Cross. This he w r as willing to do, for 

49 Gairdner, Lollardy & Reformation, pp. 411-2. 

50 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. XIX, pt. I, p. 275. 
61 Ibid., v. XIX, pt. I, p. 285. 

52 Ibid., v. XIX, pt. I, p. 504. 



40 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

doubtless he felt he could help the cause of the Church more 
by temporizing than by martyrizing. His recantation was 
accordingly made on July 6, 1544, and was signed by him the 
same day. It is preserved in the Lambeth Manuscripts, 
Bonner Register, and has been printed before in full, evidently 
with genuine satisfaction, by John Foxe. 53 The tone of the 
recantation is exceedingly abject and humble, as doubtless 
Hey wood felt he must be in order to satisfy his enemies. His 
professed conversion, however, lasted only until a Catholic 
queen came to her throne. 

The recantation of Heywood seems to be the only document 
pertaining to this affair noticed or used by his biographers, 
excepting a refeience to this event made by Sir John Haring- 
ton in his jocular Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596. He writes: 
"What think you by Haywood, that escaped hanging with 
his mirth? The king being graciously and (as I think) truly 
persuaded that a man that wrote so pleasant and harmless 
verses, could not have any harmful conceit against his pro- 
ceedings; and so by the honest motion of a gentleman of his 
chamber, saved him from the jerk of the six stringed whip." 54 
The allusion to the six-stringed whip is double, referring to 
the gallows-rope, and the Six Articles; but Harington has 
confused the Six Articles with the Act of Supremacy. Hey- 
wood would have been one of the last men to violate any of 
the Six Articles, or at least to work against their operation. It 
is, of course, impossible to identify the "gentleman of his 
chamber," who prayed the king to spare Heywood. Heywood 
himself was a gentleman of the chamber and this was perhaps 
a friend of his. But the careful writing of accurate biography 

63 See Appendix, No. 3, p. 160. 

Bishop Basil Kennett has this preserved in his collecteana, (now in 
Landsdowne Mss. No. 980, f. 34) under the heading: 

MDXLIV. Account of Mr John Heywood convict of treason for 
denying the King's Supremacy and pardon on a public Recantation. 

Also, Brewer, Letters & Payers Hen. VIII, v. XIX, pt. I, p. 531. 

64 Harington, Metam. Ajax, pp. 41-2. 



COURT ENTERTAINER 41 

was far from Harington's purpose in his "cloacinian satire," 
and we cannot trust too much in the unnamed gentleman who 
saved Heywood's life. Heywood's favor with Henry was 
perhaps sufficient to accomplish this. 

Cranmer and the Protestants won, and the Catholic plot 
failed. But Heywood's day was yet to come. It will be no- 
ticed later that the Spider in his long poem, the Spider and 
the Fly, turns out to be Cranmer, whom the maid sweeps 
down and crushes under her foot. In all fairness to Heywood, 
the death of Cranmer is not sung with glee, but soberly and 
with moral import and warning. Heywood himself had suf- 
fered too much from religious intolerance to forget himself in 
a frenzy of exultation. Perhaps, too, he suspected at that 
time that he might live to see another reaction, a Protestant 
queen on the throne, and a new persecution of undesirable 
Catholics. 






CHAPTER III 

The Queen's Favorite 

After the stormy period of 1543-1544 had passed, Hey wood 
appears to have enjoyed unbroken prosperity for the next 
twenty-five years. During that time he reached the position 
of a gentleman-wit, a poet and courtier, an epigrammatist of 
no small fame, whose name was powerful long after his death, 
when the field was full of quarreling rivals. He was, of course, 
still the dapifer camerae, a position doubtless of more honor 
and distinction than of rigid requirement for him, and he was 
still player on the virginals. 

The king royally kept his word when he pardoned him 
and restored him to favor. Not only were his former grants 
renewed, but new holdings were received from Henry. He is 
listed on July 5, 1545, as possessing two messuages or estates, 
in tenure with a John Coke, which formerly belonged to 
Mylton monastery, situated in Whitechurch parish, Dorset. 1 
In addition to this and the St. Osith's property, he held 
another parcel of land formerly belonging to the Church. 
On Dec. 27, 1545, a grant in fee was made concerning lands 
in the several tenures of John Heywoodde, John Coke, Joan 
Coke, and various others. 2 Nor does this end the list. In 
March, 1546, we find a grant in fee was made of "Kyrby- 
bellers Priory, in Kylby, Leicestershire, in tenure of John 
Haywoodde." 3 There are more records of Heywood's hold- 
ings to be noticed later, but enough have already been 
mentioned to show that his position then was one of 
affluence. 

1 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. XX, pt. I, p. 661. 

2 Ibid., v. XX, pt. II, p. 545. 

3 Ibid., v, XXI, pt. I, p. 243. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 43 

Probably the leisure which this prosperity gave Heywood 
was used for his literary work. Peacham has told us that 
Heywood's Epigrams were written at his country place in 
North Minis. The Epigrams, however, were written at vari- 
ous times, and so this does not help us to suggest any pro- 
tracted retirement into the country for the purpose of literary 
work. The first of the 'Proverbs and Epigrams' series was his 
Dialogue of Proverbs concerning Marriage, published in 1546 
by T. Berthelet. Later editions of this popular Dialogue 
included his Epigrams upon Proverbs, and also the subse- 
quent Epigrams. From the remains we have of the literature 
of this period, it is not hazardous to suggest that Heywood was 
the reigning wit, especially in court circles. Warton quotes 
from a contemporary manuscript an interview that shows 
the interest which was then prevalent in old proverbs and 
in Heywood's efforts to bring them all together in one book. 

William Paulett, Marques of Wynchester and highe treasurer of 
Engelande, being presented by John Heywoode with a booke, asked 
him what yt conteyned? and when Heywoode told him 'All the 
proverbes in Englishe' — 'What, all?' quoth my Lorde; 'No, Bate 
me an ace,' quoth Bolton, 'is that in youre booke?' 'No, by my faith, 
my Lorde, I thinke not,' aunswered Heywoode. 4 

A well-known anecdote told in The Arte of English Poesie 
shows Heywood the courtier a guest of men of power and 
rank who tolerated what might be impudence in others for 
what they considered sparkling wit in him. 

The like hapned on a time at the Duke of Northumberlandes 
bourd, where merry Iohn Heywood was allowed to sit at the tables 
end. The Duke had a very noble and honorable mynde alwayes to 
pay his debts well, and when he lacked money would not stick to sell 
the greatest part of his plate: so had he done few dayes before. 
Heywood, being loth to call for his drinke so oft as he was dry, turned 
his eye toward the cupbord and say'd T finde great misse of your 

4 Cotton Ms. Jul. f.x. Also Warton. Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 376. 



44 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

graces standing cups' : the Duke, thinking he had spoken it of some 
knowledge that his plate was lately sold, said somewhat sharpely, 
'why, Sir, will not those cuppes serue as good a man as yourselfe.' 
Heywood readily replied: 'Yes if it please your grace, but I would 
haue one of them stand still at myne elbow full of drinke, that I 
might not be driuen to trouble your men so often to call for it.' 
This pleasant and speedy reuers of the former wordes holpe all the 
matter againe, whereupon the Duke became very pleasaunt and 
dranke a bolle of wine to Heywood, and bid a cup should alwayes be 
standing by him. 5 

Many other witty sallies and anecdotes of Heywood are 
preserved, showing for what sort of puns and quick turns of 
speech his contemporaries regarded him as a brilliant wit. 

Jasper Heywood about this time was a page of honor to 
Princess Elizabeth. This must have been when he was a 
small boy, for at the age of twelve he was sent to Oxford, in 
1547, and in 1553 was elected a fellow of Merton College. 
This position was, in a way, more of an honor to the father 
than a compliment to his son, and is but another evidence of 
Heywood 's favor and intimacy at court. 6 

On Feb. 13, 1552, Heywood was paid by Princess Elizabeth 
thirty shillings for his services at an entertainment given for 
her, together with the king's drummer and fifer, and Sebastian 
Westcott and his Paul's boys. 7 Discussion concerning his 
services at this event will be taken up presently. It is im- 
portant, however, to see Heywood participating in affairs 
about the court which are in addition to his regular duties of 
player on virginals and steward in the king's chamber. His 
appointment as dapifer camerae was renewed this year, on 
March 4th, at an increased salary of 40fo\ a year. 

For the holiday festivities in January, 1553, Heywood had 
prepared a play for the young King Edward. It is interest- 

6 G. G. Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, v. II, p. 180. 

6 Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. IV, p. 212. 

7 Household Accounts of Princess Elizabeth, Camden Miscellany, v. II, 
p. 37. Also Antiquarian Repertory, v. I, p. 66. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 45 

ing to see how the drama of the court at this time became 
adapted to pieces of juvenile entertainment. For this year's 
revels there were masks of the Greeks, "another of Medioxes 
being half deathe, half man," one of bagpipes, of cats, of 
tumblers "goinge upon theyre handes with theyr feete vp- 
ward," and finally a play of the State of Ireland, and "another 
of childerne sett owte by Mr. Haywood & diuers other playes 
& pasty mes." 8 At other places in the account books of the 
Revels, this play of Ireland was confused with Heywood's 
play, but this has been straightened out and the piece iden- 
tified as a play by William Baldwin. What play was Hey- 
wood's? There is not even a conjecture to be made concern- 
ing this lost work. The young king was sick during the holi- 
days, and so these plays "were lefte of by commaundmente 
the kinge then being syck and the shewe of all the tryumphe 
and toe playes deferred tyll Easter and Maydaye nexte 
folowinge." The expenses amounted to 1S8U. 10s. 6d. 
They were presented, we find, in the spring, with additional 
charges above these costs of UK. Is. 4d. 9 

8 Feuillerat, Revels Edw. & Mary, pp. 140, 145, 288, esp. 134. 

9 Ibid., p. 141. 

VII of Edward VI. From February 28, 1552/3, to April 1, 1553. 

"yet more of the Charges aforseyde with thappareling and furnishing of ye 
seide tooe playes videlicet of Ierland and yt haywood made The payebooke 
aswell of all and singuler the wages and hyre of Artyfycers. woorkmen officers 
and other mynisters and attendauntes woorkin and attendinge theron as 
of all manner of emptions prouisions caryages and other necessary charges 
of the same and therfore done bowghte and prouided betwene the laste daye 
of februarye aforeseide in Anno vij mo Regis predicti and the fyrste daye of 
aprell nexte ensuinge in the same yeare done by specyall commaundement 
vpon a newe determynacion of the kinges pleasure ageanste Easter & 
Mayedaye. with the names of the persones and expression of the percells 
and somes of mony to them and therfore payed & defrayed as herunder 
pertyculerly ensuethe. 

Taylours woorkinge vpon thapparrell and furnyture of an Irisshe playe 
& a playe that haywood made with repere and alteracion of certen other 



46 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

This reference to Heywood's play and the children who 
enacted it, as well as the other information we have about 
Heywood's children and his plays, brings up definitely a dis- 
cussion about his connection with either the Chapel Royal 
or the Paul's boys, or some independent organization of boy 
actors, such as the "king's children," which Collier suggests. 

The precise relationship of the Chapel Royal and the sing- 
ing-school of St. Paul's, and also of various other schools for 
boys, to the contemporary drama, is one of the nice problems 
confronting all who study the mid-sixteenth century litera- 
ture of England. The Chapel Royal was an ancient institu- 
tion, with its records very incomplete. "But it entered the 
histrionic field early; it was, if we may trust the extant 
records, a pioneer in the production of some important kinds 
of plays; some of its authors seem to have set fashions in 
dramatic composition; and Shakespeare himself honoured its 
rivalry with one of the few clear notices of things contempo- 
rary that we have from his pen." 10 This choral organization 
ranged from 24 to 38 men, and from 8 to 12 children. It is 
mentioned in the Red Book of the Exchequer in 1135, at 
which time it probably confined its activities to religious 
music. The children of the Chapel are mentioned in 1420, 
when Henry V ordered a cleric to bring the boys to Nor- 
mandy, and in 1490 we hear of the children acting in the 
Christmas "disportes." The gentlemen of the Chapel also 
acted in plays, up to the year 1553. After the reign of 

other masking garmentes by the daye & nighte the yeman at ij s workmen at 
viij d and the clerk xviij d. 

etc etc Summa — xj" vij s iiij" " 

p. 142 

"Lynnen Draper. Iohn Robertes for xxiiij 1 ' ells of lockeram for thel ....a 

making of xij cotes for the boyes in heywoodes playe at xij ye ell J 

Summa — patet" 

10 Manly, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. VI, p. 279. See also citations from 
Liber Niger Domini Regis in Rimbault, Old Cheque Book of Chapel Royal. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 47 

Edward VI only the children of the Chapel are heard of in 
connection with dramatic performances. 11 There were in the 
organization of this society a "Master of Song" and a "Master 
of Grammar." One of these masters in all probability de- 
veloped into a sort of resident dramatist, writing plays for the 
children to act before the king. "But the repertoire of the 
boys was not confined, even in the early years of their histri- 
onic career, to plays written by their masters." 12 

Entertainments were popular with Henry VIII, especially 
in the earlier half of his reign. Masks, interludes, plays, 
dances, pageants, and any form of show were encouraged by 
royal patronage, and the men who devised them were liber- 
ally rewarded. For example, John Kite, who was chaplain 
and subdean of the Chapel Royal, gave plays, disguisings, 
and took part in the revels for Henry VIII. He served under 
the mastership of William Cornish, and so won the king's 
favor that in 1513 he was made Bishop of Armagh, stepping 
up to the cathedra directly from the boards of the stage. 13 

There were also the "King's Players," a small band of 
men who enacted interludes at court, who traveled abroad as 
professional actors when they were not required by the king. 
Henry VII had four such players in 1494, at an annual fee of 
5 marks. Henry VIII increased the number to eight, and 
these can be traced on the books well into Elizabeth's reign. 14 
Cardinal Wolsey also boasted of a chapel organization which 
vied with the king's. It was composed of a Dean, Subdean, 
Repeater of the Choir, Gospeller, Epistler, twelve singing 
priests, and "of Scholars he had first, a Master of the Children; 
twelve singing children; sixteen singing men; with a servant 

11 Rimbault, Old Cheque Book of Chapel Royal, Intro. Also C. Wallace, 
Children of Chapel Royal, p. 2 ff. 

12 Manly, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. VI, p. 287. 

13 Brewer, Letters & Papers Hen. VIII, v. I, no. 928. Chambers, Med. 
Stage, v. II, p. 193, and C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 27 ff. 

14 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 187. 



48 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

to attend upon the said children." 15 As Wolsey gave plays 
and entertainments quite as frequently as his king, he doubt- 
less did not rely upon professional actors when he had so good 
a possibility for dramatic performances in his own household. 
One of the interesting records of Wolsey's chapel shows his 
gentlemen playing the Menaechmi of Plautus before him in 
January, 1527. 16 

In addition to various "outside companies" of adult actors 
who received protection and patronage from the powerful 
lords, there were the Paul's boys, who gave occasional court 
performances. Like the Chapel Royal, the choir school of St. 
Paul's Cathedral was of ancient origin. Perhaps its dramatic 
history is very much like that of the Chapel, beginning with 
religious music, then providing musical entertainment, and 
gradually evolving into a band of acting children. Notice of 
the choristers of St. Paul's occurs so far back as 1378, when 
they addressed a petition to Richard II regarding the presen- 
tation of a History of the Old Testament. 17 It is of course clear 
that this singing-school is not the school which Dean Colet 
founded in 1512. This grammar school was established, by 
funds from Colet's private fortune, in the eastern end of St. 
Paul's churchyard, and consisted of a schoolhouse, a large 
schoolroom, and houses for two masters. An estate in Buck- 
inghamshire was transferred to the Mercers Company to 
provide salaries for the teachers. Later there was a chaplain 
to teach divinity. Linacre wrote a Latin grammar for the 
boys. Colet had corresponded with Erasmus about his 
project, and secured his interest. A syntax was written by 
the first master, William Lily, which was revised by Colet 
and later by Erasmus himself. Erasmus also wrote a Latin 
phrase-book for the school. The Eton Latin Grammar in 

15 Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, p. 34. 

16 Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1527-33, No. 4. C. Wallace, Evo- 
lution, p. 88, etc. 

17 Collier, Annals, v. I, p. 17. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 49 

use today is but a revision of this early Paul's grammar of 
Lily, Colet and Erasmus. Under Lily as headmaster, John 
Rightwise served as sur-master. 18 The boys in Colet's school 
were not choristers, but they, like the boys of the other 
grammar schools of Eton, Westminster, and Hitchen, 
produced and enacted plays. These Coletine Paul's boys 
should not be confused, as they often are, with the choir boys 
of St. Paul's cathedral. When the Paul's boys act with 
Master Rightwise before Henry in 1527, we know these are 
the children of the grammar school; when Sebastian West- 
cott brings his children before Queen Elizabeth in 1559 (when 
Hey wood was present), and on many other occasions when 
Westcott's name appears, we know these are the choristers 
of the cathedral organization. 19 

Heywood, in his business of entertaining the court, must 
have known the king's interlude players who were maintained 
as part of the royal establishment. He doubtless came into 
contact with other adult players who were available at court. 
The Queen's men, a group of perhaps four or five profes- 
sionals, acted under the patronage of Henry VIII, Edward 
VI, and Mary. This company toured in the country, for 
they are recorded at Southampton (1530/1), Canterbury 
(1543/4), Norwich (1546), Bristol (1547), Ipswich (1555/6), 
Leicester, Norwich, and Oxford (1556/7) . 20 During the reign 
of Edward VI, the Queen's men were probably under the 
license and patronage of Catherine Parr. 

The Chapel choir of Windsor Castle probably contributed 
to court drama in Heywood's day. On March 8, 1560, Eliza- 
beth, mindful of the former reputation of this organization, 
ordered its improvement, and empowered her agent to take 
recruits from any choral body they pleased, save only her 
Chapel Royal, and St. Paul's. After 1568 the reconstructed 

18 Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. Ill, pp. 12-3. 

19 Lupton, Colet, p. 154 ff. Collier, Annals, v. I, pp. 110, 190, 279, etc. 

20 J. T. Murray, English Dramatic Companies, v. I, pp. 3, 4, 17. 



50 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

company presented plays regularly at court. 21 Several of the 
important noblemen maintained choirs in their households, 
very probably using the boys in interludes as the king or 
Wolsey did with their private chapel groups. Sometimes boys 
were brought in to supplant adult actors, as with the Duke of 
Norfolk, who patronized a company of men until 1564 /5 and 
after that date permitted the children of his chapel to give 
plays, 22 evidently disbanding the others. It is probable that 
both Mary and Elizabeth had their own companies when 
they were princesses. "My lade prynces plears" gave several 
performances between 1530 and 1538, also four players of 
"Our Lord Prince" Edward acted between 1537 and 1540. 23 

Many other companies flourished under the protection of 
great men while Heywood was at court. It is impossible to 
state, from the records now available, what groups came 
under his observation, or to speculate upon his possible con- 
nection with any of them. A suggestive list of important 
companies of professional actors, all in existence before 1558, 
is taken from records cited by Murray: 

Earl of Arundel's players 

Earl of Bath's players 

The Lord Privy Seal's players (Lord Cromwell) 

Marquis of Dorset's players 

Earl of Sussex's players (Lord & Lady Fitzwalter) 

Lord Lisle's players 

Duke of Norfolk's players 

Duke of Somerset's players (Lord Protector) 

Duke and Duchess of Suffolk's players 

Lord Chancellor's players 

Sir Thomas Challoner's players 

Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports' players 

Lord Admiral's players (Duke of Northumberland) 

Duke of Richmond's players. 24 

21 J. T. Murray, English Dramatic Companies, v. I, p. 338. 

22 Ibid,, v. II, pp. 59, 61. 

23 Ibid., v. II, appendix G, p. 297 ff. 

24 Ibid., v. II, pp. 20-93. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 51 

From the early part of the century Heywood, in his service 
at court, dealt with many dramatic organizations. He had the 
advantages of association with the Chapel Royal, Wolsey's 
choir, Windsor Chapel, the king's players and other compan- 
ies of professionals who came to court for occasional per- 
formances, the amateurs who played with More and Rastell 
in their theatricals, the players in the households of great 
men, and the boys in the schools under the mastership of 
such men as Redford and Udall, who were his personal friends. 
It is possible that as a youth he was a singer in the Chapel 
Royal. He may have known or even served under William 
Newark, master of the Chapel until 1509. William Cornish 
succeeded Newark, and was master until 1523. Cornish must 
have been well known to Heywood. Wallace goes so far as 
to say, "Heywood had grown up in the chapel under Cornish, 
and must have sung and acted in numerous pageants and 
plays of the master." 25 But there is no evidence of Heywood's 
connection with Cornish, nor is there any record showing 
that Heywood was ever a member of the Chapel Royal, either 
as a youth or as a man. But when he was court musician he 
would naturally come into contact with other musicians, such 
as Cornish. Beyond this point it is dangerous to guess. If 
Heywood held any position in the Chapel, it certainly did 
not prevent him from associating closely with the Paul's 
choir. 

Was Heywood ever a master of the children of the Chapel 
Royal, or of the children of St. Paul's? He was a trained 
singer, a skilled dramatist, one in favor at court and pos- 
sessed a good knowledge of the requirements of court enter- 
tainment, of the rehearsing and production of plays and 
interludes. He was eligible, surely, for such a position. And 
there are references to Heywood's plays for children; he was 
paid for appearing with "his children," with the boys of 

26 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 77. 



52 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

St. Paul's and perhaps of the Chapel. There is enough 
room for such inference, then, and such inference has been 
made. 

The suggestion that Heywood was master of St. Paul's is 
made by Chambers. "From about 1515 he was employed at 
court; in 1519 he is called a 'singer,' later a 'player at vir- 
ginals,' and finally he was master of a company of children, 
possibly the singing-school of St. Paul's." Again he states 
more definitely, "He was put in charge of the singing-school 
of St. Paul's, the boys of which probably performed his 
plays." 26 Feuillerat, having gone over the references to 
Heywood 's children, agrees with Chambers, that Heywood 
was a master of the choristers of St. Paul's. He objects to 
the assertion that Heywood was a master of the children of 
the Chapel Royal, made by Wallace. 27 The item concerning 
Heywood 's boys is found in the revels accounts of Ed- 
ward VI, 1553, already referred to: 

Lynnen Draper. Iohn Robertes for xxiiij 1 ' ells of locheram for the 
making of xij cotes for the boyes in Heywoodes playe at xijci! ye ell. 

But the fact that the Chapel children or the Paul's boys 
were not mentioned in this entry makes it hazardous to guess 
which company of boys this was. 28 As we have seen, West- 
cott was master of the Paul's boys at this time. But in any 
case, this reference would not necessarily show that Heywood 
was a regular master in either organization. Feuillerat points 
out that in no documents available does Heywood appear as 
master or member of the Chapel during this period. 29 

26 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, pp. 196, 203, 443. 

27 Feuillerat, Revels Edw. & Mary, p. 288, also p. 142. 

28 Collier, Annals, v. I, p. 92, suggests he was master of an independent 
company, "the King's children." 

29 Feuillerat, Revels Edw. & Mary, p. 288. Mrs. C. C. Stopes, William 
Hunnis & Chapel Royal, p. 142, says, "There are some notices which seem 
to suggest that, at one time, Heywood was master of the children, but never 
regularly appointed by formal patent." 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 53 

There are three other references, however, which mention 
Heywood in connection with children. In March, 1538, he 
received 40s. for "playeng an enterlude with his Children" 
before Princess Mary. 30 Also on Feb. 13, 1552, he was em- 
ployed at the entertainment for Elizabeth; "paid in rewarde 
to the Kinges Maiesties drommer and phipher . . . xxs.; 
Mr. Heywoodde xxxs.; and to Sebastian, towardes the 
charge of the children with the carriage of the plaiers gar- 
mentes, iij/i. xixs." 31 Again, in August, 1559, before Queen 
Elizabeth there was a "play of the chylderyn of Powlles, and 
ther master Se(bastian), master Phelypes, and master Hay- 
wod, and after a grett bankett," etc. 32 

Thus Heywood is mentioned four times in connection with 
performances given by children over a long stretch of years — 
in 1538, 1552, 1553, and 1559. With the information now 
available concerning the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's school, 
it would seem that if Heywood were ever connected with 
either institution in any official capacity during these twenty 
years, there would be some contemporary mention of that 
fact. Of all the records and notices we possess concerning 
Heywood, there is not a single one which would lead us 
directly to believe he was ever a master of children. The in- 
stances of his performing with the Paul's boys in 1552 and in 
1559 are not sufficient, for both times Master Westcott is 
mentioned as in charge of the children. Sebastian Westcott 
was master of the Paul's boys at that time, and continued to 
be long after Heywood left England. But though Heywood 
was not in charge of the Paul's children, he was in some close 
relation with them in these two entertainments at least. 

Another very slight connection with the St. Paul's school is 
noticed in a manuscript volume of John Redford's, containing 

3r ' Madden, Privy Purse Exp. Mary, p. 62; Ellis, Orig. Letters, I, 273. 
" Household Acct. Princess Elizabeth, p. 37; also Antiquarian Repertory, 
v. I, p. 66; C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 84. 
32 Maehyn, Diary, p. 206. 



54 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

his own Wit and Science and also nine ballads (perhaps more) 
written by Heywood, along with others by Redford, with 
lyrics and music, to be sung in interludes played by the 
Paul's boys when Redford was master of them. 33 But this 
in no way shows any connection of an official nature with the 
school. Holinshed tells us, moreover, that Heywood sat in a 
pageant under a vine in St. Paul's churchyard and made an 
oration to Queen Mary when she passed in her coronation 
procession. It seems that on other occasions of this sort the 
entertainment given at this station was generally by someone 
directly connected with the institution itself. For instance, 
Hall tells that during a procession for Anne Boleyn in 1533, 
two hundred children, well appareled, stood on a scaffold and 
recited to her. For Philip, in 1554, a Latin oration was made 
at this place by Dr. Harpesfield. When Elizabeth made her 
progress through the city in 1559, a child of the school pro- 
nounced a Latin oration and delivered to her Majesty a copy 
of it fairly written on paper. For James I, in 1603, the chor- 
isters sang an anthem, after which a Latin speech was made 
by one of Master Mulcaster's scholars. 34 This point cannot 
be urged as evidence that Heywood was a master in the 
school, but it shows at least a friendly relationship there. 

In order to establish the inference that Heywood was, on the 
other hand, a master of the Chapel Royal, Wallace reasons 
that because Princess Mary gave presents to the children of 
the Chapel, as in 1536, 1542, 1543, and 1544, they were natu- 
rally in her favor; hence when Heywood played with some 
children before her in 1538, these were Chapel children, and he 
was their master. 35 This, of course, is not convincing. Wallace 
continues, moreover, to state, "A year later, for Shrovetide of 
the final year of Edward VI, 1553, the Revels Office prepared 

33 Brit. Mus. Add. Mss. 15233, Redford. Also see C. Wallace, Evolution, 
p. 85. 

34 Nichols, London Pageants, pp. 41, 51, 53, 57, 63. 
36 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 84. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 55 

apparel for the twelve children of the Chapel in a 'playe that 
Haywood mad'," etc. 36 Unfortunately, the documents do not 
state that these twelve children are from the Chapel Royal, 
and so this item fails to identify Heywood's children. 

The data at hand, then, do not favor the belief that Hey- 
wood was officially connected with either the Chapel or the 
St. Paul's schools. It is much safer to assume, and there is 
nothing to contradict the assumption, that Heywood was 
never connected with either institution as a master of boys, 
but that he frequently acted as a master of festivities, perhaps 
also as a dramatic "coach" for these and other companies of 
boys. None of the men whom we know to have been masters 
of children was so loaded with court duties; and this is a 
strong argument against Heywood's having constant charge 
of a band of children which would in all probability have 
taken most of his time. Instead, we find him a steward of the 
chamber, a court musician, an occasional dramatist, a Catho- 
lic partisan, a wit and poet of wide activity. In other words, 
we have ample record of Heywood's many occupations dur- 
ing the years in which he is supposed to have been a peda- 
gogue. This record is a full one, one that should satisfy us 
without further attempt to burden him with another position 
for which there is not sufficient evidence to establish it with 
any degree of certainty. 

A fortnight after the unnamed play by Heywood was en- 
acted before King Edward, at Easter and Mayday, 1553, the 
young monarch was dead and Mary became queen of Eng- 
land. Heywood, it may be believed, was not among the last 
to rejoice over this event. Her coronation was held in the 
fall of 1553. On September 30th, Stow tells us, "In Pauls 
Churchyard against the Schoole, one Master Haywood sate in 
a pageant under a vine, and made to her an Oration in Latine 
and English." 37 In October Mary made an Agreement of 

36 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 84. 

37 Stow, Annals, p. 617. 



56 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Marriage with Philip II of Spain, and in July, 1554, the mar- 
riage was consummated. 

Such a Catholic as Heywood could not have been greatly 
displeased with this match; at least his misgivings were 
stilled when he wrote "A Ballad Specifying partly the Man- 
ner, partly the Matter, in the most excellent Meeting and like 
Marriage between our Sovereign Lord and our Sovereign 
Lady the King's and Queen's Highness, penned by John Hey- 
wood." Park has pointed out that Vargas, a Spanish poet, is 
said by Puttenham to have been rewarded with a pension of 
two hundred crowns during life, for an epithalamie, or nuptial 
song, on the marriage of Mary and Philip. Heywood also 
may have furbished up his courtly pen in the anticipation of 
a similar recompense for these preposterously flattering verses 
on the same event. 38 This allegorical poem describes the 
marriage of the eagle (Spain) with the lion (England), but 
in order that the lion might represent the Lady Mary more 
fittingly, it was — 

no rampant lion masculine, 
The lamb-like lion feminine. 

This poem has obvious resemblances to Chaucer's Parliament 
of Foules, and is one of many instances of Heywood's debts 
to this poet. 

The ballad was an effective one, no matter how poor in 
poetry, for on December 29th, 1554, was signed a grant 
to Heywood of various lands in Kent, to be held by him for 
40 years, his expectation of life. This gave him an addi- 
tional income of 100/i. 39 In the next year, April 5, 1555, his 
office as "sewer" to Mary is renewed at 50li. per annum. 

This is Heywood's most flourishing period. About this 
time he was working on his long poem, The Spider and the Fly, 

38 Park, Harleian Miscellany, v. X, p. 255. 

39 Patent Rolls, 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary, pt. 8, m. 40. Also see Sharman, 
Proverbs of Heywood, xlv. and C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 83. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 57 

which was printed by Thomas Powell in 1556. The conclu- 
sion of the poem was written after the spring of 1556, for it 
introduces the execution of the Protestant Archbishop Cran- 
mer, who was burned at Oxford in March of that year. Bishop 
Gardiner of Winchester and Cardinal Reginald Pole were now 
in power. Gardiner and Heywood, we know, were old 
friends, both being unpleasantly implicated in the plot to 
prosecute Cranmer in 1543. Cardinal Pole had been an old 
friend of Sir Thomas More's and was intimate with Hey- 
wood. Ellis, Heywood's elder son, had been secretary to 
Pole and w r ent to Italy with him. He remained in Italy w r hen 
Pole came to England to take charge of papal interests under 
Queen Mary, but he dedicated to Pole his book about Sir 
Thomas More, a fictitious dialogue representing More's 
conversations with the learned men of his times, entitled 27 
Moro d'Heliseo Heuiodo Inglese. From Italy Ellis went to 
Dillingen, Germany, after becoming a Jesuit. Both he and 
his brother Jasper were engaged in educational work in 
Germany. We shall meet with Ellis again in the next 
chapter, at the close of his father's life. 

In this time of Heywood's prosperity Bishop Bale notices 
him as a contemporary poet. In his Index Britanniae Scrip- 
torum, collected 1549-1557, Bale merely lists some of the 
works then known to him. 40 In the enlarged Scriptorum Illus- 
trium Catalogus, however, he gives a valuable account of 
Heywood, under "Scriptores nostri Temporis" (1557-1558) : 

40 John Bale: (1549 to 1557) Index Britanniae Scriptorum quos ex variis 
bibliothecis non parvo labore collegit Ioannes Baleus, cum aliis. Ed. Regi- 
nald Lane Poole and Mary Bateson, Oxford, 1902 

Ioannes Heywode, scripsit, 

Comediam de Aura Ferlongum iam esset 

Tragediam de amore nunc tandem concipere 

De quadruplici P. 

Epigrammata faceta 

Atque alia plura 
Ex officina Roberti Toye. 



58 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

JOANNES HEYVUODE, ciuis Londinensis, musices ac rhyth- 
micae artis in sua lingua studiosus, & siue doctrina ingeniosus, pro 
cboreis post comessationes & epulas hilariter ducendis, spectaculis, 
ludis, aut personatis ludicris exhibendis, aliisque uanitatibus 
fouendis, multum laborabat, ediditque 

De aura comoediam, Lib. 1. 

De amore tragoediam, Lib. 1. 

De quadruplici P. Lib. 1. 

Centum epigrammata, Lib. 1. 

Ducenta alia epigrammata, Lib. 1. 

Epigrammata prouerbiala, Lib. 1. 

Sed promouenda ueritate nibil egit, ueritatis fastiditor. Vixit 
ille Domini 1556. 41 

In this account Bale lists the First and Second Hundred 
Epigrams, but no mention is made of the later series. This 
shows that by 1556 (evidently the date at which Bale wrote 
this) these earlier epigrams were printed. It has been said 
that the Epigrams were first printed separately on flyleaves 
or broadsides, long before they were published in the col- 
lected edition of 1562. 42 Perhaps from many of these occa- 
sional broadsides Heywood later collected his series of six 
hundred Epigrams. 

Hey wood's intimacy with Queen Mary has been mentioned 
by many biographers. Camden has preserved for us a few of 
his witticisms which show his ease before her, as well as the 
kind of repartee for which he was famed. 43 Ben Jonson also 

41 Bale, Scriptorum Illustrium Catalogus, v. II, p. 110. 

42 Farmer, Proverbs, Epigrams & Miscel., p. 329. 

43 Remains Concerning Britain, by William Camden. Library of Old Au- 
thors, London, John Russell Smith, 1870, p. 314. 

Now we draw to an end, have a few sayings of merry M. Heywood, the 
first Epigrammatist. When Queen Mary told this Heywood that the 
Priests must forgo their wives, he merrily answered, "Your Grace must 
allow them Lemons then, for the Clergy cannot live without sawce." 

He being asked of the said Queen Mary, what wind blew him to the 
Court, answered her, "Two specially the one to see your Majesty" — "We 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 59 

gives us an account, in his Conversations with Drummond, 
which is interesting in this connection: 

Heywood the Epigramatist being apparelled in velvet by Queen 
Mary, with his cap on in the presence, in spight of all the Gentlemen, 
till the Queen herself asked him what he meaned? and then he 
asked her, If he was Heywood? for she had made him so brave that 
he almost had misknowen himself. 

Jonson also said, "His Impressa was a compass with one foot 
in the center, the other broken, the word, Deest quod duceret 
orbem. 4 *" It is difficult to believe that Heywood did forget 
himself before the queen. The story looks as if she had ad- 
vanced him to some favorable office, perhaps as gentleman of 
her chamber, and had ordered new livery for him. He, having 
a pun in mind, provoked the utterence of it by his behavior. 
The Impressa worn by Heywood was a jewel or decoration 
worn in his hat, on which was embroidered a motto. The 
mutual dependence of the legs of a pair of compasses was 
often in Jonson's mind, and so this detail was curiously 
remembered by him. 45 

thank you for that," said Queen Mary; "but I pray you, what is the other?" 
"That your Grace," said he, "might see me." 

When one told him that Pace, being a Master of Art, had disgraced him- 
self with wearing a fool's Coat, he answered, "It is less hurtful to the common- 
weal, when wise men go in fools Coats, than when fools go in wise men's 
gowns." 

When he saw one riding that bare a wanton behind him, he said, "In 
good faith, Sir, I would say that your horse were over-loaden, if I did not 
perceive the gentlewoman you carry were very light." 

When a man of worship, whose beer was better hopped than maulted, 
asked him at his table how he liked his Beer, and whether it were well hopped, 
"Yes, by the faith of my body," said he, "it is very well hopped; but if it 
had hopped a little further, it had hopped into the water." 

When one said, that the number of Lawyers would marr the occupation, 
he answered, "No, for always the more Spaniels in the field, the more game." 

44 Works of Ben Jonson, Gifford ed. 1875, v. IX, pp. 407-8. 

45 Is it not possible that Heywood's motto was worn after Philip's depart- 
ure from his bride, and that it refers to her loneliness and incompleteness in 
a delicate manner? 



60 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

On December 4th, 1554, Nicholas Udall received payment 
as a sort of court dramatist. This position would have brought 
Heywood and Udall together, if they were not already known 
to each other. Udall was engaged in 1542 in translating the 
Apothegms of Erasmus. Naturally Heywood would be inter- 
ested in Erasmus and his works, so intimately connected 
with Sir Thomas More. Princess Mary also was interested 
in Udall's translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase of the New 
Testament (ca. 1545-8). Udall, however, was employed on 
the Protestant side in the intervening years before he was 
made court dramatist, but there was at least the bond of 
dramatic interest between these two men. Udall saw with 
pleasing willingness the error of his Protestant ways for 
Mary, as Heywood had renounced the Catholics for Henry, 
and to save his own life. Udall's literary indebtedness to 
Heywood has already been noticed by Professor J. W. Hales. 46 
"In Ralph Roister Doister, Udall even drew for expression 
freely upon Hey wood's Proverbs (1546) and in Respublica he 
used the same theme that was just then hot under Hey wood's 
hand in the Spider and the Flie — all of which falls in harmoni- 
ously with other evidences that both these children's plays 
date from the period of pleasant intercourse between these 
two poets at court." 47 Boas has pointed out Hey wood's 
superiority over Udall in his incisive wit and pregnant 
expression. He sees Udall excel Heywood only in his dra- 
matic form, one which led to the establishment of English 
comedy on a more classical basis than we could have from 
the interlude and farce of Heywood. 48 

The hopes of Heywood and other Catholics who were now 

46 Gayley, Rep. English Comedies, v. I, pp. 92-96. 

47 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 97. 

48 Boas, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. V, p. 105. But Fliigel, in Gayley, Rep. 
English Comedies, v. I, pp. 92-96, denies that Udall used Heywood' s Prov- 
erbs; if any similarities exist they merely show that both men were familiar 
with common phrases and proverbs of the early sixteenth century. 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 61 

rejoicing under the rule of Queen Mary were not lasting. Her 
health, by 1558, was failing rapidly and early in November 
she and those who were near her knew that the end was at 
hand. Nearly all the early writers on Hey wood tell that 
when Mary was on her death-bed, Heywood rallied and 
cheered her by his witty sallies and that he was admitted 
to intimate discourse with her. He was not only an old 
court servant but had been to her a life-long friend, and 
doubtless performed for her such last services as were in his 
power. 

These attentions were not unappreciated. Mary wished to 
reward him with benefits that no Protestant successor could 
legally take from him. It was perhaps upon her advice, then, 
that he resigned his position of steward of the chamber which 
he had held since 1528. The entry of renewal of this office, 
dated April 5, 1555, is crossed out and in the margin is written 
"Vacat. 12 Nov. 1558," showing the surrender and cancellation 
of this position. 49 At the same time Mary granted him a lease 
on the manor of Bolmer for 40 years, and other lands in York- 
shire, which yielded him a rent of 30Zr. for his life and 51li. 
10s. for the rest of the term. 60 

Thus the manor of Bolmer returned to the hands of a loyal 
Catholic. It had been attainted in 1535, as Grafton tells, 
"Also in the latter end of this yere . . . Iohn Bulmer and his 
wife . . . began againe to conspire, although they before had 
their pardons; and nowe they were all taken and brought to 
the Tower of London." And, "shortly after were also ar- 
reigned . . . syr John Bulmer and his wife, which some 
reported was not his wife, but his paramour, . . . and all 
founde guiltie of high treason, and all put to death at Tiborne 
... sir Iohn Buhners Paramour was brent in Smithfield in 
London." 51 

49 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 82. 

50 Calendar of State Papers, Ed. Mary & Eliz. Domestic, v. I, p. 112. 
61 Grafton, Chronicle, v. II, pp. 461-2. 



62 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

A few days after this grant was made to Heywood, Mary 
died and Elizabeth came to the throne. Wallace and other 
recent writers have followed the general statement that as 
soon as Elizabeth began her rule Heywood fled from Eng- 
land for fear of his life. 52 This, however, is not the case. 
Elizabeth knew Heywood well, and in all probability valued 
his wit and abilities, just as Mary did in the case of Udall, 
and was willing to overlook his religious bias. Almost a year 
after this, in August, 1559, Henry Machyn in his funereal 
diary tells of an entertainment given for her by Heywood, 
Westcott, and the Paul's children. 53 We find Heywood still 
associated with court entertainments, although no informa- 
tion is given concerning his personal services. Perhaps he was 
still valued as a director of festivities and courtly revels. 54 

52 Wallace, Evolution, p. 83; also Ward, D. N. B., Gayley, Fuller, Lang- 
baine, etc. etc. 

63 The Diary of Henry Machyn, from 1550 to 1563, edited by John G. 
Nichols. Camden Society, London, 1848, p. 206 (Year 1559). 

The v day of August the Quen('s) 'grace removyd from Eltham unto 
Non-shyche, my lord of Arundell('s), and ther her grace had as gret cher 
evere nyght, and bankettes; but the sonday at nyght my lord of Arundell('s) 
howse mad her a grett bankett at ys cost, the wyche kyng Henry the viij 
byldyd, as ever was sene, for soper, bankett, and maske, with drumes and 
flutes, and all the mysyke that cold be, tyll mydnyght; and as for chere has 
nott bene sene nor hard. (On Monday) the Quen('s) grace stod at her 
standyng (in the further park,) and ther was corse after; and at nyght the 
Quen . . . and a play of the chylderyn of Powlles, and ther master 
Se(bastian), master Phelypes, and master Haywod, and after a grett bankett 
as (ever was s)ene, with drums and flutes, and the goodly banketts of dishes 
costely as ever was sene and gyldyd, tyll iij in mornyng; and ther was 
skallyng of yonge lordes and knyghtes of the . . . 

My lord of Arundell gayffe to the Quen('s) grace a cubard of platt. 

The x day of August, the wyche was sant Laurans day, the Quen('s) grace 
removyd from Non-shyche unto Hamtun cowrte. 

64 Before this date there had been a period of closed theatres, as Machyn 
tells, (Diary p. 193): 

The viij day of Aprell (1559) there was a proclamasion of peese between 
the Quene's Grace and Hare the French kyng, and Dolphyn the kyng of 



THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE 63 

It is hazardous to suggest the date of Heywood's departure 
from England. The next chronological record of him is a 
new edition of his Proverbs which appeared in 1561, "newly 
overseen and somewhat corrected." Also in 1562 his Pro- 
verbs and Epigrams were published under the title John 
Heywoodes Woorkes. It is possible, of course, that the over- 
seeing and correcting were done and advertised by his printer 
as a device to help the sale of his already popular Proverbs, 
but at least there is no information at hand which would tend 
to contradict the assumption that Heywood was in England, 
and actually did oversee and correct his Proverbs, in 1561. 
The publication of his Woorkes in 1562 was a heavy under- 
taking, one which would require much proof-reading and 
careful arrangement of the material, all of which the author 
could do best himself. It is not rash, then, to suppose Hey- 
wood was in London in 1562. Another edition of his Epi- 
grams and Proverbs appeared in 1566, and many more fol- 
lowed. But by that time Heywood had fled from his native 
land, one of many thousands who "suffered for religion's sake" 
beyond the seas. 

Skottes . . . ; and Bluw-Mantyll dyd proclaymyd that no players shuld 
play no more tyll a serten tyme of no mans players; but the mare or shreyff, 
balle, constabull, or odur offesers take them, lay them in presun, and the 
quen's common dement layd on them. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Catholic Exile 

Until quite recently it was generally believed that Hey- 
wood died at Malines, or Mechlin, in 1565. l It is probable 
that aWood knew Heywood was in exile about this date, at 
Malines. This is suggested, also, by Bang's recent discovery of 
William Rastell's will, which was written and signed when he 
was in exile at Antwerp, August 8, 1564. In this will Rastell 
says, "Item, do et lego Domino Johanni Heywood, patri dicti 
Elizei, annulum meiim aureum cum effigie capitis mortui cum 
nomine bonvisi." 2 Almost without exception, all the other 
beneficiaries named in this document were then in exile in the 
Low Countries. It would seem, therefore, that by the middle 
of the year 1564 Heywood was living at Malines. This ring 
left to Heywood came from Anthony Bonvisi, a life-long 
friend of Sir Thomas More's, who died in Louvain in 1558. 3 

But Heywood in exile was not forlorn and lost to all his 
friends. There were many of his intimate circle with him in 
the Low Countries. It is indeed doubtful if his daughter 
Elizabeth Donne accompanied him there, for she was married 
to John Donne about 1563. Nor is there any information 
concerning his wife, Eliza Rastell Heywood, at this time. 
Presumably she died before his departure from England. But 
his brother-in-law, William Rastell, who married Winifred 
Clement, the daughter of Dr. John Clement and Margaret 
Giggs, lived at Antwerp after he resigned his judgeship, until 
his death in 1565. 4 

' Held by aWood, Fuller, Warton, Chalmers, Swoboda, etc. 

2 See Appendix No. 4, page 164. 

3 Bang, Eng. Studien, band 38, p. 248. 

4 See Bang, in Eng. Studien, band 38, p. 246, etc. for many of the members 
of the Heywood-More circle who were then on the continent. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 65 

Heywood's sons, and indeed his daughter Elizabeth Donne, 
lived to comfort their father by their good work for the 
Catholic cause. Both sons were the most notable Jesuits in 
England during Elizabeth's reign. Jasper attained some 
position in literature. He had attended Merton College, 
Oxford, and during the holidays of 1557 was Lord of Misrule, 
or Rex Fabarum. 5 While a student he translated into English 
verse three tragedies of Seneca which were later included in 
the Tenne Tragedies. Shortly after, he was compelled to 
resign the fellowship which he held, in order to avoid being 
expelled for some misconduct. His benefactor, Cardinal 
Pole, assisted him to another fellowship but soon after this 
Jasper went to Italy, and from there joined the Jesuit college 
at Dillingen. Catholic biographers have given him much 
honor for opposing the Reformation at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. 6 Wood says that while at Oxford he "bare away the 
bell in disputations at home and in the public schools," and 
"he and his brother Ellis Heywood were for a time very wild, 
to the great grief of their father." 7 

Jasper Heywood also had eight poems from his pen included 
in Richard Edward's Paradise of Dainty Devices, all of which 
are religious and none of remarkable merit. In 1581 he led 
the Jesuit mission in England, and his enemies say he put on 
airs to such an extent that he was esteemed the Provincial of 
the Order. Wliile on this mission he was greatly interested 
in the education of Catholic youths. He induced families to 
send their sons to the universities as early as they could ma- 
triculate, so they could get as much training as possible 
before they were sixteen, at which age the oath of allegiance 
and supremacy was administered. Between 1581 and 1584 
eighteen boys under the age of fourteen were sent to Oxford, 

5 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. I, p. 408. 

6 Gil!ow, Bib. Dicty. also Dodd, History, v. II, Appendix 317. a'so pp. 
139-140. 

7 Ant. aWood, Ath. Oxon., v. I, p. 663. 



66 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

and among these were John Donne and his brother. 8 Jasper 
was imprisoned in 1584 in the Tower, where his sister Elizabeth 
Donne was permitted to visit him. 9 Harington in his Epi- 
grams records Jasper's answer to the Earl of Warwick's offer 
to relieve his need: 

Thanks to that Lord that wills me good; 
For I want all things saving Hay and Wood. 

Jasper was shipped, with other Jesuits, out of England in 
1585. He died at Naples in 1598. 

After William Rastell's death in 1565, Ellis Heywood, by 
terms of his will, became his executor and chief beneficiary. He 
in turn deeded the property he inherited to the Jesuits, chiefly 
for their educational work, in which he was deeply interested. 
This document is signed at Dillingen, November, 1568. Fur- 
ther disposition of this property was made in 1572, so that the 
students at Lou vain might derive benefit from the income. 10 

After John Heywood left England there was evidently an 
attempt made to sell his rights on various lands in Kent. 
The data concerning this matter would seem to imply that 
the procedure was not regular or satisfactory, for among the 
business transacted by the Privy Council on March 6, 1571 
is the following entry : 

At Grenewiche, the vjth of Marche, 1570. (1571) 

Thearle of Sussex Mr. Treasourer 

Thearle of Leicester Mr. Comptroller 

The Lord Chamberlaine Mr. Smith 
The Lord Burghley 
A letter to the Justices of Peax of the countie of Kent to inquire 
of the matters in controversie happenid betwene William Parry and 
John Heywoode, and to procede therein according to lawe, and to 

8 Jessopp, Donne, p. 11. 

9 Rishton, one of the imprisoned Catholics, who was exiled with Jasper in 
1585, has described the tortures the prisoners suffered. Dodd, History, 
v. Ill, p. 158. Camden, Annates, v. II, p. 412. 

10 Bang, Eng. Studien, band 38, p. 241 ff. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 67 

recover the goodes that hath ben by the said Heywoode imbecillid 
awaye, to be further orderid as the lawes of the realme shall ap- 
point. " 

This same year, 1571, Nicholas Sanderus published at 
Louvain his De Visibili Monorchia Ecclesia. Under the 
heading " Viri Nobiles, ob fidem Catholicam in exilo degentes," 
(p. 706) we find Iohannes Haywodus listed. The preface to 
this work is dated in the summer of 1571, and so the reference 
to Hey wood in exile is contemporary and accurate. We know 
that Heywood was still residing in Malines in 1573, for 
Father Droeshout tells that Ellis Heywood came from 
England to Antwerp in that year, to transact some business 
with the magistral of the city, and while on this visit went 
over to Malines to see his father. Heywood continued to 
reside at Malines until 1576. 12 

A very valuable bit of authentic information concerning 
Heywood at Malines seems to have attracted no notice 
whatever in previous biographical accounts. Among the 
mass of State Papers is a communication from Dr. Wilson at 
Antwerp to Lord Burghley, dated Dec. 20, 1574. Thomas 
Wilson, LL.D., well known as the author of the Arte of Rhe- 
torique and other works, was at that time Elizabeth's ambas- 
sador at Antwerp, and made frequent reports upon the gossip 
of the exiled Catholics in the Low Countries. He was later 
made Secretary of State. He confessed that the Catholics 
were very suspicious of him, that they blamed him for making 
trouble for them, and that in some way he was held respon- 
sible for the delays they suffered in obtaining their pensions. 13 

In this letter, Wilson says that he has talked with "old 
Heywood" at Malines, where he had been visiting, and that 
he declared to Heywood the queen's goodness towards him. 
This 'goodness' was evidently a sanction given to the old man 

11 Dasent, Acts Privy Council, New ser. v. VIII, p. 16. 

12 For Droeshout s account, see page 71. 

13 Strype. Annals, v. II, pt. II, p. 152 ff. 



68 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

who desired to end his exile and return to England, for Wilson 
continues to say that "the old man was greatly comforted 
thereby, but he could not return before next spring because of 
his sickly and aged body." It is evident that Heywood felt it 
necessary before this to wait for explicit permission to return 
to England, and from this we may suspect that he left 
England because of some definite act of religious zeal which 
roused the ire of Elizabeth — in all probability relating to the 
Marian persecutions, especially the death of Cranmer. 

Wilson adds that Hey wood's son Ellis had been his "good 
companion formerly at Padua," and that Ellis offered to 
preach a sermon before him, which Wilson did not refuse; 
but he was careful to state that if Ellis said anything offensive 
about the Queen, her religion, or her magistrates, he would 
pluck the preacher out of the pulpit. After treating of other 
matters, Wilson adds that old John Heywood has written and 
delivered "a letter and schedule for his living" to Mr. Lee, 
who was probably an official associated with Wilson. He told 
Heywood that "the Queen was never so precise that she could 
not bear with men's weaknesses for their conscience in reli- 
gion, and only misliked overt acts and rebellious practices." 14 
In this last remark there is the implication that Heywood was 
in exile not only for "conscience in religion," but also for 
"overt acts and rebellious practices," which he evidently 
repented of, at least to the extent of becoming no longer an 
undesirable resident of England in the opinion of an increas- 
ingly tolerant Protestantism. If we but knew just what these 
overt acts and rebellious practices were, the incidents of this 
part of Heywood's life would be much clearer. When we 
think of Heywood's long years at court when Elizabeth was 
princess, it is not difficult to imagine that she knew him well 
and not without regard, which would incline her to leniency 
and pity in this dark period of his life. 

14 Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Ser. Elizabeth, 1572-1574, document 
1615, p. 581. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 69 

In another letter Dr. Wilson reports that the Catholics on 
the continent hope to get a sanction from Elizabeth permitting 
Ellis and Jasper Heywood, and two other Jesuits, to preach 
freely in England. This is evidently in preparation for the 
Jesuit mission to England which has already been referred to. 15 

Heywood did not return to England, as he had planned, in 
the spring of 1575. Fortunately there is preserved a letter 
from him to Lord Burghley written from Malines on April 
18th of that year. He complains that his income has been cut 
off, and begs that his son, then in England, be given the 
arrears. He craves a pension which will keep him alive a little 
longer, that he may spend his last days in quiet and prayer. 
He is now 78 years old, and cannot live much longer; his 
daughter also has been deprived of income; on the continent 
he has been robbed by Spaniards and German soldiers of the 
little that he possessed. 16 

15 Strype, Life & Acts Matthew Parker, p. 366 ff. 

16 A modernized abstract contained in the State Papers publications, is 
here quoted entire: 

f Apr. 18, 1575 
\ Malines 

John Heywood to Lord Burghley. I hear what an earnest suitor your wife 
is for me in my old age, when my friends are dead, my living detained from 
me, and the chief of it, a lease in Romney marsh, bought utterly from me, 
and not a penny paid for 1 l /2 years. God reward you and my Lady for 
ordering my son to send me the arrears. Beggars should not be choosers, 
yet I would crave to enjoy the rest of my poor living here quietly, by a 
patent for life, which cannot be long, as I am now 78; I will live as a poor, 
honest, quiet old man, and spend my time in prayer and looking to my last 
end. Pray appoint an Exchequer officer to help my daughter therein, that 
I may have my arrears, since I was proclaimed, speedily sent me, and the 
rest of my living, except the lease that is brought from me; and let the 
patent be to myself and my assigns, that I may boldly take order for my 
maintenance, lest it come not till I am dead, which is a day after the fair. 

Dated"From Malines, where I have been spoiled by Spaniards and German 
soldiers of a good part of the little I had." 

Mary Anne Everett Green, ed: Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 
of the Reign of Elizabeth, Addenda, 1566-1579. London, 1871, p. 482. 



70 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

This pathetic appeal shows Heywood at the end of his 
career. His spirit is broken, he is old and feeble, he has been 
sickly for a long time, as the letter in the previous year from 
Wilson shows. He has reached the point of life when his 
only desire is for a quiet, peaceful death. 

Just what incidents lay behind his reference to being 
"spoiled by Spaniards and German soldiers of a good part of 
the little I had," of course we do not know. But the English 
Catholics in exile were more English than Catholic. It is 
evident from Wilson's correspondence, and statements by 
other government observers, that the English in the Low 
Countries had no great love for the Spaniards. The Span- 
iards and Germans who were fighting on the Catholic side 
doubtless reciprocated, and did not respect the property of 
Catholics any more because these Catholics were English- 
men. 

This letter to Burghley suggests that, for some reason, 
Heywood's lands were to be taken from him, though not by 
direct attainder. But he held many other grants, even as 
late as 1577. In that year a commission was appointed to 
inquire into his possessions, and those of his wife, it seems. 
He was found to own many lands for life, at a nominal rent, 
and on some he held the reversion also. His wife Eliza had 
held land of 5li. yearly value, which passed by grant to her 
daughter, Elizabeth Donne. Heywood's lands in Kent, 
received from Mary, were alone worth 100U., but these he 
evidently had to relinquish because of political offences. 17 

It is interesting to recall that Heywood's son-in-law, 
Donne, in his will, dated January 16, 1576, left money for a 
ring to the old man. "Item, I give and bequeath unto my 
cousin, John Heywood, three pounds in gold to make him a 
ring with a Death's head." 18 Heywood's daughter was the 
chief beneficiary and executrix. As may be seen in William 

17 Sharman, Proverbs, p. xlv. 

18 Gosse, Donne, v. II, p. 357 ff . 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 71 

Rastell's testament, the death's-head ring was a very popular 
memento mori at this time. 

And now we come to the closing scene of Heywood's life. 
This is the most stirring incident of his long career as we know 
it, and it is particularly valuable in having been written for 
us by a contemporary observer. 

Heywood's hopes for a quiet, peaceful end, contemplating 
death with prayer and meditation, were frustrated. If he 
left England for the peaceful security of exile, he was dis- 
appointed. He stepped almost into the midst of the bitter 
wars and persecutions which Catholics and Protestants were 
waging in the Netherlands. 

After 1573, when Ellis Heywood came to Antwerp from 
England, on business for the Jesuits, he made his headquar- 
ters there. His education, especially his knowledge of many 
languages, made him very valuable to the General of the 
Society. Ellis went frequently to Malines to see his aged 
father, and to console him in his evil days. This took him 
so much from his work, however, that Father Mercurian, 
General of the Society, gave special authorization that the 
old man be admitted into the Jesuit College at Antwerp 
where his son lived, with board and lodging separate from the 
Fathers. This admission was made in 1576. 19 

Bang has printed an abstract made by one of his students 
from the Histoire de la Compagnie de Jesus a Anvers of 
Father Droeshout, S. J., the second part of which, Le College 
1562-78, contains the story of the harrowing episode. This 
work is still in manuscript, only partially edited, composed of 
letters by Jesuits, of diplomatic documents, and other things. 
Bang has promised an edition of this valuable history. 20 

19 Before this time, Ellis must have been sent on various journeys to 
England, for we read, in 1575, "Alio loco quidam Pater Eliseus diebus festis 
(Quadragesima) dicebat de rebus divinis ad Anglos." Papebroch, Annates 
Antwerpiensis, v. Ill, p. 250. 

20 1 have not heard that this Ms. survived German vandalism at Lou vain 
in 1914. 



72 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

When the troubles between Protestants and Catholics 
broke out again at Antwerp in 1578, the Jesuits there decided 
to anticipate the worst by sending on to Cologne some of the 
old Fathers for whom it would be difficult to provide in the 
event of riot and expulsion. John Hey wood, now a feeble 
octogenarian, was accompanied by a priest who was to take 
him to that city. But at the gates of the city these two were 
arrested by guards, partisans of Mathias and the States, and 
were compelled to return to the College. They were told that 
no Jesuits were allowed to leave unless they were all expelled 
together. This was in April, 1578. 

The oath which the Jesuits were required to swear against 
Don Juan, by the Pacification of Ghent, was repudiated. 
After this defiance, on the day of Pentecost the mob invaded 
the College, ransacked it, and made all the inmates prisoners. 
John Heywood and his son Ellis were of course captured with 
them. They were all led to the port, Bierhofd, where they 
were compelled to embark, to be taken by water to Malines. 
But the Duke of Orange and Mathias could not agree upon 
the disposition of them. Orange dispatched a messenger to 
Malines, to tell the magistrates there to keep the fugitives 
outside the gates and not to admit them into the city. He 
then sent about sixty troopers by land to intercept the ban- 
ished priests before they reached the walls of Malines, and 
there to kill all of them. 

But the Jesuits, now all embarked, appealed to Mathias, 
who wished to save them. He had the commandant at Lierre 
forewarned of Orange's plot, and told him to take a goodly 
escort to Malines and protect the captives. He also gave 
word to Don Juan at Louvain that he should send a guard to 
protect them and take them off his hands at Malines, or on 
the road to Louvain. 

The Jesuits arrived at Malines in the evening. The magis- 
trates had received Orange's order, and closed the gates 
against them. This was about six- thirty in the evening. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 73 

But some moments before, the escort had arrived from 
Lierre. The Franciscans, also expelled from Antwerp, were 
encountered near Malines. Under the protection of the 
detachment from Lierre, they all set out on the road to 
Louvain, which was held by the Catholics. The escort sent 
out by Don Juan was met along the road, and under their 
guidance all reached Louvain, amid great rejoicing. This 
occurred on May 26th, 1578. 21 

Ellis Heywood suffered greatly from the shock of this 
experience, and we know that he died in October of this year, 
at Louvain. The suffering of the priests must have been 
greater than the hints of it given by Father Droeshout. 
What John Heywood experienced, the shock and the suf- 
fering, and its effect upon him, can only be imagined. This 
is the last record we have of him. He was then over eighty- 
one years of age, and probably did not recover from this 
violence. Perhaps he did not live through the summer, to 
see his devoted son die. At least it is not hazardous to say 
that Heywood died in the year 1578, sometime after the first 
of June. Father Droeshout concludes his account by saying 
that Heywood remembered the Society in his will, and his son 
Ellis also was a benefactor of the order. 

The witty play of words which Pitseus gives us in his 
account of Heywood is held by Park to be a piece of death- 
bed waggery which vies with the scaffold jests of Sir Thomas 
More. 22 Bang has already shown that John Bridgewater (or 
Iohannes Aquepontanus) in his Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholi- 

21 Bang, in Eng. Studien, band 38, p. 238. Also Papebroch, Annates Ant- 
werpiensis v. Ill, p. 452 ff. 

Antwerp was the scene of greater violence than this in Nov. 1576, the 
year when Heywood was admitted to the Jesuit College. Dr. Th. Wilson 
wrote to England that the Spaniards then killed about 17,000 Protestants, 
he himself seeing most of them, men, women, and children, lying dead in the 
streets. Strype, Annals, v. II, pt. II, p. 2 ff. 

22 See Appendix No. 5, page 168. Also Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, 
p. 372. 



74 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

cae in Anglia, printed in 1589, mentions Heywood, and in 
the Index Personarum he is represented as "loan. Heiuodus 
N(obilis) obijt E(xul)." 23 Two years before this date, in 1587, 
Heywood had already been noticed and lamented as dead by 
Thomas Newton of Cheshire, who issued an edition of Hey- 
wood's Epigrams: 

This Author Haywood dead and gone, and shrinde in tombe of clay, 
Bifore his death by penned workes did carefully assay 
To build himself a lasting tombe, not made of stone and lyme, 
But better farre and richer too triumphing over Tyme. 

At the close of a biography the author usually gives a sum- 
mary appreciation of the subject. In this case, however, the 
works of Heywood are still to be discussed, and I hope that 
such a consideration may help to evaluate him more than 
abbreviated generalizations could at this point. Moreover, 
Heywood himself has written this summary in the closing 
item of his Fifth Hundred of Epigrams: 

"Art thou Heywood with the mad merry wit?" 

"Yea, forsooth, master! that same is even hit." 

"Art thou Heywood that applieth mirth more than thrift?" 

"Yea, sir! I take merry mirth a golden gift." 

"Art thou Heywood that hath made many mad plays?" 

"Yea, many plays; few good works in all my days." 

"Art thou Heywood that hath made men merry long?" 

"Yea, and will, if I be made merry among." 

"Art thou Heywood that would be made merry now?" 

"Yea, sir! help me to it now I beseech yow." 

It is not an easy thing to epitomize one's life by a quip. 
From what we have already seen of Heywood, we know this 
"epigram" is unfair, in order to be fantastic. It requires one 
species of courage, we may believe, and some suggestion of 
worth, for a man to damage his own fame to make others 
smile. 

23 Bang, in Eng. Studien, band 38, p. 235. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 75 

Neither during his life, nor in the generation which fol- 
lowed him, did Heywood fail to receive his proper share of 
fame and repute. In the course of his biography I have 
already quoted many references to him made by literary men 
of his own day. It may not be unprofitable, then, to notice 
other comments upon him made by writers of his time, and 
by those who regarded him as one of the important figures in 
the literature which was written before their own genera- 
tion. In this an effort has been made to include all references 
to Heywood that are available. 

Thomas Wilson, already noticed as a friend of Hey wood's 
son and an acquaintance of the father's, wrote, in The Arte 
of Rhetorique (1553) : 

The English Proverbes gathered by Iohn Heywood, helpe well in 
this behalf e (re. Allegory), the which commonly are nothing els but 
Allegories, and darke devised sentences. 

He also says, 

For furnishing similitudes the proverbes of Heiwood helpe wele 
for thys purpose. 24 

Barnaby Googe, in his Husbandrie, uses an epigram to 
point a remark when he says, "Of the discommodity of Essex 
Cheese, our English Martiall Jhon Haywood, thus merily 
writeth : 

I never saw Banbury Cheese thicke enough, 
But I have seene Essex Cheese quicke enough." 25 

After his death it appears from such remarks as follow 
that his fame rested largely upon his witty Epigrams. Thus, 
William Webbe, in A Discourse of English Poetrie (1586), 
says: 

I might next speake of the dyuers workes of the olde Earle of 
Surrey, of the L. Vaus, of Norton of Bristow, Edwardes, Tusser, 

24 Wilson, Rhetorique, ed. Mair, p. 176. 

25 Heywood, Sixth Hund. Epigr. No. 24. 



76 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Churchyard, Wyl. Hunnis, Haiwood, Sand, Hyll, S. Y., M. D., and 
many others; but to speake of their seueral gyfts and aboundant 
skyll shewed forth by them in many pretty and learned workes would 
make my discourse much more tedious. 26 

Gabriel Harvey takes a less enthusiastic attitude towards 
recent writers, in his Aduertisement for Pap-hatchet, in Pierce's 
Supererogation (1593) : 

Our late writers are as they are; and albeit they will not suffer 
me to ballance them with the honorable Autors of the Romanes, 
Grecians, and Hebrues, yet I will crave no pardon of the highest 
to do the simple no wrong. In Grafton, Holinshed, and Stowe; in 
Heywood, Tusser, and Gowge; in . . . etc.; in an hundred such 
vulgar writers many things are commendable, diuers things notable, 
some things excellent. 27 

Sir John Davies, in his Epigrams (1596-1598?) pays respect 

to his predecessor: 

Haywood that did in Epigrams excel], 

In non put downe since my light Muse arose, 

As buckets are put down into a well, 

Or as a schoolboy pulleth down his hose. (No. 29) 

Sir John Harington takes a crack at Davies and praises 
Heywood frequently in his Metamorphosis of Ajax (1596). 
He refers to the pleading of a gentleman of the King's 
chamber, which saved Heywood from the gallows, as noticed 
already. He quotes epigrams from Heywood to embellish 
his argument, and says: 

This Haywood, for his proverbs and epigrams, is not yet put 
down by any of our country, though one (Davies) doth indeed come 
near him, that graces him the more in saying he puts him down. 28 

26 G. G. Smith, Eliz. Crit. Essays, v. I, p. 242. It is possible that this 
reference is to Jasper Heywood. 

27 G. G. Smith, Eliz. Crit. Essays, v. II, p. 280. 

28 Harington, Metam. Ajax, ed. 1814, pp. 41, 89, 97; also in Ulysses upon 
Ajax (in same volume) there are references to Heywood; pp. 31, 32, 33. 
Also An Apology, p. 17. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 77 

Harington uses Heywood further in a note to his transla- 
tion of the Orlando Furioso, concerning virtuous men, and 
liars : 

So true of his word, as he that Heywood writes of that kept all 
the commandements, and namely that concerning false witnesse, — 
With witnesse false thou hurtest none, for why; 
Each word thou speakest, each man doth know a lye. 29 

In the Chrestoleros, or Seven Bookes of Epigrams (1598) 
by Th. Bastard, Heywood is mentioned with respect, though 
with the realization that he has been superseded by better 
writers, of whom Bastard admits he is one: 

If witt may make a poet, as I gesse, 

Heywood with auncient poets may compare. 
But thou, in word and deed, hast made him lesse 

In his own witt, having yet learning spare. 
The goat doth hunt the grasse, the wolfe the goat; 

The lyon hunts the wolfe by proof we see; 
Heywood sang others downe, but thy sweet note, 

Davis, hath sang him downe, and I would thee. 
Then be not moved, nor count it such a sinn, 

To will in thee what thou hast done in him. 
— Ad Johannem Davis 

Reader, if Heywood lived now againe, 

Whom time of life, hath not of praise bereaved; 

If he would write, I could express his vaine; 
This would he write, or else I am deceived. 

— Ad Lectorem 

Heywood goes down saith Davie, sikerly, 

And down he goes, I can it not deny. 
But were I happy, did not fortune frown, 

Were I in heart, I would sing Davy down. 30 

Francis Meres, in his Palladis Tamia (1598), names 

29 Harington, Orlando Furioso, Bk. 38, p. 324. 
80 Bastard, Chrestoleros, pp. 36, 54, 59. 



78 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Heywood one of the English epigrammatists who can be 
compared with the classical writers: 

These and many other Epigrammatists the Latin tongue hath, 
Q. Catulus, Porcius Licinius, Quintus Cornificius, Martial, Cnoeus 
Getulicus, and wittie Sir Thomas Moore: so in English we have 
these, Heywood, Drante, Kendal, Bastard, Dauies. 31 

Heath also, in his Century of Epigrams (1610), mentions 

Heywood with good judgment of his worth : 

Heywood the old English epigrammatist 
Had wit at will, and art was all he mist: 
But now adaies we of the modern frie 
Have art and labour with wits penurie. 32 

But the criticisms and the efforts of later epigrammatists 
did not greatly affect Heywood's popularity. In 1611, or 
thereabouts, we read in the Scourge of Folly by Davies of 
Hereford : 

To old John Heywood the Epigrammatist. 
Olde Heywood have with thee in his od vaine 
That yet with booksellers as new doth remaine. 
New poets sing riming, but thy rymes advance 
Themselves in light measure: for thus they do dance, 
He gather some proverbes thou gatheredest before, 
To descant upon them as thou didst of yore. . . . 33 

Another compliment was paid to his name in the undated 

Mastive, or Young Whelpe of the Old Dogge: 
Heywood was held for epigrams the best 
What time old Church-yard dealt in verse and prose, 
But fashions since are growne out of request, 
As bombast-dublets, bases, and round hose. 
Or as your lady, may it now be saide, 
That looks lesse louely then her chambermaid. 34 

31 G. G. Smith. Eliz. Crit. Essays, v. II, p. 321. 

32 Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 373. 

33 Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 376. 

34 Ant.aWood,^. Oxon.,v. I, p. 328. This is possibly by Anton, c. 1616. 



THE CATHOLIC EXILE 79 

The interest Ben Jonson showed in Heywood was not 
casual. We have noticed already his conversation with 
Drummond concerning Heywood and Queen Mary. In 
another conversation he tells Drummond that Heywood 
was Donne's grandfather, and in satirizing Inigo Jones in the 
Tale of a Tub, Jonson says: 

Spare us no cost, either in boards or hoops 

To architect your tub: have you ne'er a cooper 

At London, call'd Vitruvius? send for him 

Or old John Heywood, call him to you to help. 35 

We can now take leave of the man whose life and works 
were more than he jokingly estimated them to be, and exam- 
ine the writings which have been preserved to us, to judge 
them for ourselves. 

35 Act V, Sc. ii, 1.91 ff. Also Jonson Works, v. IX, p. 383. 



CHAPTER V 

Heywood's Dramatic Works 

The plays now extant from Heywood's pen make up a 
most valuable group of Tudor interludes, because more than 
any others preserved to us, they characterize the movement 
away from medieval drama towards that of the later Eliza- 
bethans. Before the close of the first quarter of the sixteenth 
century English drama was defined by the mysteries, usually 
formed into large cycles as at York, Wakefield and elsewhere, 
the moralities, such as the Macro plays, Everyman, and later 
works like Skelton's Magnificence, and folk plays of Robin 
Hood, sword dances and morris games. The plays of the 
traveling professional actors who visited provincial towns 
early in Henry VIII's reign are not preserved, and a discus- 
sion of their characteristics would be mere speculation. The 
Tudor interlude is surprisingly different from this earlier 
drama. The element of farce, incidental to the action in 
miracles and moralities, may be primary to the interlude. 
Characterization, which was generally Biblical or allegorical 
in the older drama, becomes specific, personal, individualized. 
A new dramatic form emerges from the medieval disputation. 
These plays are usually comic; even the didacticism which 
still persists is more entertaining. Excluding the Biblical 
plays by Bale and others, and the later mixed moralities, con- 
troversial and educational, this drama is represented to us 
only by some twenty pieces, all practically unaffected by the 
classical renaissance. The plays of Heywood, moreover, form 
a group of the only extant farces and dramatic disputations 
produced so early in England. They show him working in 
sympathy with a literary tradition extending back to Chaucer, 
yet at the same time introducing themes of contemporary 
French drama and discussing the life and problems of his own 



DRAMATIC WORKS 81 

day. Hey wood's work marks the most distinct endeavor of a 
dramatic development away from the miracles and moralities. 
Six plays are generally enumerated as Hey wood's: The 
Pardoner and the Friar, The Play of Love, The Play of the 
Weather, Witty and Witless, The Four P's, and John, Tyb, 
and Sir John. To these should be added, I believe, the Gen- 
tleness and Nobility which will be discussed later. Two other 
pieces, Calisto and Meliboea and Thersites, have been attributed 
to him, but not with the confidence or the general acceptance 
of the others. 1 A chronological arrangement of these plays is 
hardly possible at present. Two types of drama, however, 
are evident in his work, the disputation and the farce, and 
under these divisions the individual plays can be examined. 

Disputations 

The medieval debat or disputation, in spite of speeches 
in dialogue, is not fundamentally a dramatic form. It is a 
kind of poetic controversy put into the mouths of two types 
or personified abstractions; each argues his own superiority, 
and decision is not infrequently referred to an umpire, as 
in the eclogues of Theocritus. The tengons and joc-partits 
of Provencal express this flyting mood, and their singers 
probably introduced the debat form into England. 2 In 
France the jeu-parti or parture develops into a scholarly dis- 
pute over academic subjects or a debate on fine-spun problems 
of love. England fostered the strif or estrif, a debate in 
dialogue, non-dramatic and obviously never acted. 3 The 

1 A bibliography of Heywood's dramatic works, including editions and 
reprints, is contained in Tucker Brooke, Tudor Drama, pp. 101-2, and 
Chambers Med. Stage, v. II, pp. 454-5. 

2 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. I, p. 80; Schofield, Eng. Lit. Norman 
Conquest to Chaucer, p. 68. 

3 Such as The Harrowing of Hell, The Owl and the Nightingale, The 
Thrush and the Nightingale, The Fox and the Wolf, Debate of the Car- 
penter's Tools, Debate between the Body and the Soul, Disputacio inter 
Mariam et Crucem, etc. As will be seen, Heywood's longest work, The 
Spider and the Fly, is an extended debate. 



82 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

dramatization of this form involves a witty and clever logic, 
specious and humorous rather than just, and it becomes a 
thing to please and amuse, rarely to edify and instruct. In 
order to enliven the disputation, Heywood did not hesitate 
to borrow from the farce and introduce ludicrous brawling 
and rough disorder. 

WITTY AND WITLESS 

The dialogue of Witty and Witless, sometimes called Wit 
and Folly, was not published perhaps during Heywood's life- 
time, and is preserved only in a manuscript copy in the Brit- 
ish Museum. 4 There is no problem of authorship here, for 
it is signed "Amen qd John Heywod." The manuscript lacks 
the opening lines, but probably not much has been lost. This 
short piece, of about 850 lines, is argued by three persons, the 
third coming in only at the end to prevent an unfortunate 
conclusion. 

Content 

The argument is already mider way when the manuscript 
takes up the dialogue. James holds it is better to be witless 
than witty; the fool suffers no want, and does not have to 
work. But John, the opponent, objects that fools are 
abused. Heywood takes this opportunity to say that even 
the king's jester, whom he evidently disliked, suffers displeas- 
ure at times: 

Not even Master Somer, the king's grace's fool, 
But tasteth some time some nips of new school. 

When John suggests that the student has great joy and delight 
in his task well done, James answers in an enthusiastic pas- 
sage on the pride of work and labor, which sounds remark- 
ably like the sentiments voiced in the anonymous Gentleness 
and Nobility: 

* Harl. Ms. No. 367. Thos. Hacket entered the "pleye of wytles" on Sta- 
tioners Register 1560/1. Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 455. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 83 

As much delight carters oft have in carts neat trimmed, 
As do students in books with gold neat limned : 
And as much envy who may drive his cart best, 
As among students who may seem learned highest, 
Whereby inward delight to toll forth each part, 
Seemeth me indifferent to art, or to cart! 5 

They continue to argue pro and con, employing the devices 
of scholastic debate to an extent which would be unbearable 
to a modern audience, and finally John gives way and admits 
he had "better be sot Somer than sage Soloman." 

But at this point Jerome, a schoolman, enters and attacks 
the conclusion with all his learning. He says it is better to 
be a man than a beast, and a fool is a beast: 

For think you the number 
Standeth as Somer doth, all day in slumber. 
Nay! Somer is a sot! fool for a king! 

and also: 

Except Master Somer, of sots not the best, 

But the mill-horse may compare with him for rest! 

And so John is converted to the side of wit and intellectuality. 
An Epilogue of four stanzas is to be said only if the king is 
present. After wishing the king joy and prosperity, Heywood 
concludes very pertinently : 

Continuance whereof with fruitful increase, 
I heartily wish for increase of reward; 

As Scripture alleged late doth witness, 
The witty wise worker to be prefarde 

Above the idle sot, and ye to regard 

Each man himself so to apply in this, 

As ye all may obtain the high degree of bliss. 

Here we have the solution for Heywood's rancor against 
Somer. Somer was a favorite, receiving more from the king 

5 Farmer, Dramatic Works Heywood, p. 200. 



84 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

than Heywood did at this time, which was before he was 
favored with land grants and additional money. Naturally, 
then, he felt that as a court musician, composer of dramatic 
entertainments, and very likely a general utility man in other 
festivities, he was worked harder and worth more than the 
professional fool. He was the witty wise worker who wished 
to be preferred above the idle sot. 

Source 

Many of the arguments of James, on the side of Witless 
or Folly, seem to be taken from Erasmus' Encomium Moriae, 
which Heywood must have known because of the intimate 
association he bore to Sir Thomas More and his family circle. 
This borrowing is general, however, and somewhat vague. A 
more definite and direct source for the disputation has been 
discovered and established in the French Dyalogue du fol et 
du sage, a debat which was probably performed at the court of 
Louis XII, the husband of Henry VIII's sister Mary. 6 

Heywood goes beyond his original at the conclusion, how- 
ever, for it seems he is responsible for the addition of Jerome 
the schoolman who brings victory to the side of wit. The 
French piece permits the fool to win; but Heywood wished 
to hit at Will Somer for his own advancement, and so adds 
to his source. This is the least dramatic of Heywood's plays, 
because it appears to be most imitative of a purely literary 
form, the debate, which was ready at hand and required neither 
invention nor experiment. He had only to translate and 
append a peroration spoken by a new figure who would labor a 
point in his favor at the expense of his rival, Will Somer. The 
speculative problem of the fool and the wise man interested 
Heywood and his generation. The theme discussed by Barclay 
and Erasmus is used several times in Heywood's epigrams. 7 

8 K. Young in Modern Philology, v. II, p. 109 ff.; S. Lee, French Renais- 
sance in Eng., p. 374; Boas in Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. V, p. 93. 
7 See page 136. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 85 

This play is probably the earliest dramatic effort preserved 
to us from Hey wood's pen. Its simplicity, imitation, and its 
comparative dullness suggest an inexperienced writer. If it 
was written before the plays printed by John and William 
Rastell, in all likelihood it was not deemed worthy of printing 
by author or publisher. Disputations of this sort were in- 
cluded in court entertainments before 1530 and were still 
used twenty-five years later in the same way. 8 Although 
there was an audience for such feeble dramatic efforts down 
into the reign of Elizabeth, Heywood probably neglected this 
form after serving his apprenticeship in it. 9 

THE PLAY OF LOVE 

A more elaborate disputation has for its full title "A play 
of loue, A newe and mery enterlude concerning pleasure and 
payne in loue, made by Ihon Heywood." This piece was 
probably regarded more favorably than Witty and Witless, 
for it was printed by W^illiam Rastell in 1533, again in 1534, 
and still later by Waley, who published books between 1547 
and 1558. The debat is double in this piece, two separate dis- 
putations being carried on by two sets of contestants. The 
four personae represent all quarters of the state of love, the 
Lover not Loved, the woman Loved not Loving, the Lover 
Loved, and Neither Lover nor Loved. The play is nearly 
1600 lines in length, about twice the size of Witty and Witless. 

Content 

The discussion is begun by the Lover not Loved, who 
complains that he suffers more for love than any other per- 
son. He loves ardently and his lady does not return his 
affection. The woman Loved not Loving challenges him, 

8 Note the dialogues of Riches and Love, 1527, and Riches and Youth, 
1552, both used with barriers. Appendix No. 6, p. 172. 

9 Pollard, in Gayley, Rep. Eng. Com., v. I, p. 11, says it is "inconceivable 
that any one who had written the Pardoner and the Frere could subse- 
quently write the Dyaloge of Wyt and Folly or the Play of Love." 



86 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

believing that her lot is far more unbearable. Employing the 
vocabulary and formality of set debate, her opponent ac- 
cepts the opportunity for scholastic discussion, and says: 

Fair lady, pleaseth it you to repair near, 
And in this cause to show cause reasonable 
Whereby cause of reformation may appear — 
Of reason I must and will be reformable. 

Truly a dull beginning to modern ears; but it promises a 
courtly disputation to all who enjoy clever argument. The 
adversaries soon agree that they are unable to come to any 
conclusion without the services of a judge who will weigh 
their arguments impartially, and they leave the stage to- 
gether in search of such an individual. Then enters the 
Lover Loved, joyously singing a song, 10 and proceeds in a 
long monologue to describe his happiness in possessing the 
love of his lady. When he concludes, Neither Lover nor 
Loved, a blunt, coarse fellow, comes in and calls him a fool 
and a woodcock. He declares that the happiest of all men is 
the one who neither loves nor is beloved. They immediately 
fall to and begin their debate, each maintaining he is happier, 
but they soon discover that they also need a judge to decide 
the matter for them, and the lover goes to search for one. 
While he is gone, Neither Lover nor Loved delivers a long 
speech, telling how he once played at love himself with a 
"sweeting" whom he describes in tumbling Skeltonic meter, 
giving a complete inventory of his lady's charms, from her 
head to her heel. The graphie, listing and portraying a lady's 
beauties in this fashion, was being written in France at 
this time; an extension of the more restricted blason which 
treated only of one particular feature of the poet's mistress. 
This sort of poetry is highly decorative, a courtly thing found 
most where artificial nourishment would stimulate its weak 
life. In this passage, Hey wood has changed his meter as if 

10 Possibly this lyric is the one printed in full on page 128. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 87 

to show that this part is an insertion, a unit by itself, even 
though this example of French sophistication is more of a 
burlesq ue than an imitation. 11 

Neither Lover nor Loved then tells how he made love to the 
damsel, intending to mock her in the end. After a long sea- 
son of successful love-play, he deserts her. He thinks of the 
great sorrow and disappointment she must feel, and returns 
to her house, only to find that his place has been quickly and 
happily filled by another man, and thus the game of moccum 
moccabitur, the mocker mocked, as he calls it, is played 
against him. This story, with its spice and dexterous con- 
clusion, is of the fabliau cast. Heywood inserts it into a dull 
disputation, realizing no doubt that some of his audience 
may not relish the monotonous diet of scholarly debate. 

When this long monologue is done, the Lover Loved re- 
turns, bringing with him the other two disputants, the 
woman Loved not Loving and the Lover not Loved. If we 
had not suspected it earlier, when Neither Lover nor Loved 
was speaking of his amorous escapade, we now discover that 
he is the vice of the play. He addresses impudent remarks to 
the lady, is rough in his speech to the others, cracks jokes and 
makes puns, and undertakes to be the merry wag of the party. 
With much comment, the arguments of each pair of debaters 
are presented to the others, and the discussion begins in 
earnest. Legal tricks are employed to introduce and nullify 
evidence, and each contestant stands a sharp examination 
from his adversary. Neither Lover nor Loved leaves the 
stage for a book during his opponent's pleading, after which 
we read the unusual and interesting stage direction : 

Here the Vice cometh in running suddenly about the place among 
the audience with a high copper tank on his head full of squibs fired 
crying, water! water! fire! fire! fire! water! water! fire! till the fire 
in the squibs be spent. 

11 For the sort of thing that this takes after, see La Belle Pavle by Gabriel 
de Minut, which he calls a Paule-graphie; also the Masons of Marot,Sceve,etc. 



88 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

He then declares there is a house on fire nearby, in which a 
woman was burned. It is the home of the mistress of the 
happy Lover Loved, who falls in a swoon with grief and 
anguish. He is revived and leaves in anxious torture to seek 
his lady. The audience is informed that this is all a trick to 
show that the Lover Loved is not secure in his happiness, but 
is liable to the utmost agonies. The lover soon returns and 
the debates are concluded with the safe decision that all 
persons are equally pained and equally happy. 

Source 

No direct source has yet been discovered for this play. 
It is made up of several distinct elements, the graphie vul- 
garized and used for comic purpose, the fabliau story of the 
mocker mocked, the vice introduced from the morality, and a 
double disputation upon topics of courtly love. This is the 
earliest use of the term vice, designating the familiar clown of 
the moralities, in any printed play. There is no lack of mate- 
rials for this "courtly love" of argument which Heywood dis- 
plays. One of the most popular discussions of the problems 
of love in Heywood's time was Les Arrets a" Amour by Martial 
d'Auvergne, a veritable case-book of the various offences and 
nice points of pleading in the gay art and gentle science of 
dalliance, the gaya cience of the Provencal. The character- 
istics of the elegant lady, Loved not Loving, who was pained 
and bored by the adoration of her many suitors, were acqui- 
sitions of the courtly dames of France whose brilliance shone 
across the Channel. Anne Boleyn very probably brought 
this vogue of courtly love to England from the French capi- 
tal. Evidence of her interest in this formal pastime is plenti- 
ful in her letters to Henry VIII before their marriage. Hey- 
wood's debat becomes an important early contribution to the 
courtly love literature in Tudor England. His haughty lady 
preserves the characteristics of her predecessors in the litera- 
ture of woman-worship in France, which extends back to 



DRAMATIC WORKS 89 

Italian and Provencal poets. 12 In addition to the tengons of 
southern France which glory in discussions of love problems, 
Boccaccio in II Filocolo (Lib. v.) describes many points of 
debate in his Tredici questioni d'amore. Heywood probably 
did not know of this work, which appears to have been first 
translated into English in 1567 by H. G(ifford?). There are 
some similarities, however, which show the materials were pre- 
served in the literary tradition which French poets took from 
Italy and passed on to England. In the second question of 
the Filocolo we are asked, Is love an evil or a good? The dis- 
cussion naturally would involve the arguments presented 
by Heywood in his play. Another question is, Which lady is 
more unfortunate, the one whose lover is sent into hopeless 
exile, or she who has never been permitted to be with her 
lover? The Italian drama made room for this sort of dispu- 
tation on stage in the frottola, and Hey wood's debat has been 
compared to this form. 13 

Presentation 

This play was presented at Christmas-tide, as indicated 
in the invocation to the new-born Savior which ends the 
piece : 

Which Lord of Lords, whose joyful and blessed birth 
Is now remembered by time presenting — 
This accustomed time of honest mirth — . . . 

The reference to honest mirth and this time of rejoicing 
points to the extended festivities at court, where we should 

12 Lee, French Renaissance in England, pp. 32, 39, 44; also see J. B. 
Fletcher, Religion of Beauty in Woman. 

13 A. W. Ward, Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit., v. I, p. 247; A Brand], Quellen, 
p. liii. The literature of courtly love in the 16th century culminates in 
Lyly's Euphues. The debates in this work are refined sophistications of the 
materials Heywood employs. Lyly, moreover makes abundant use of the 
proverbs and folk sayings which Heywood accumulated, in order to add to 
the sententiousness of his style. (See page 134.) 



90 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

expect to find Heywood active as musician and attendant 
upon the king at this season. Information is lacking con- 
cerning dramatic events and revels at court between 1527 
and 1533, but unquestionably they were not altogether dis- 
continued. This play would have pleased Anne Boleyn, and 
was published by Rastell in 1533, the year she became queen. 
I venture to suggest, therefore, that this play was presented 
at court before Anne, probably at Epiphany-tide, 1533. 

This disputation is more interesting than Witty and 
Witless because it is not so severely simple. There is more 
business on stage, the discussion is brighter, the humor 
enlivened by the graphie and the fabliau, and doubtless Hey- 
wood's audience was delighted by the vice and his pan of 
squibs or fireworks, designed to create a good-natured panic 
like the devils rushing among the spectators in the miracles 
and in some court masks. Elements of farce are here added 
to an academic form in order to make it entertaining drama. 14 

GENTLENESS AND NOBILITY 

The disputation entitled Of Gentylnes and Nobylyte, printed 
without date by John Rastell, differs from the scholarly debat 
in the treatment of its subject. The definition of the true 
gentleman was an exercise not far removed from discussions 
of courtly love. But under Heywood's treatment we have a 
significant review of social relationships, a comment on the 
life of his own day, and a conclusion at once sensible and 
urgent. 

Content 

A Merchant and a Knight argue, each in a dignified, re- 
strained manner well becoming the traditions of formal de- 
bate, as to who is the gentler and nobler. The Knight bases 

14 An interesting adaptation of this double debat was written by Thos. 
Lupton, All for Money, 1578; a morality which teaches the value of scientific 
education. The characters are Learning-without-Money, Learning-with- 
Money, Money-without-Learning, and Neither-Money-nor-Learning. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 91 

his claim upon his aristocratic ancestry and great lands, 
inherited through five hundred years, and the famous deeds 
of his forefathers. The Merchant, in answering, boasts of 
money enough to buy all the lands and inheritance of the 
Knight, and declares that his ancestors fed and provided for 
the progenitors of the Knight. The Knight then prides him- 
self upon his superior wit : 

For reason will ever it should so be, 
Wise men to have fools in captivity, 

hitting precisely upon the argument of Witty and Witless. But 
the Merchant has intelligence on his side also; his father was 
a smith, his grandfather a mason, his great-grandfather a 
weaver, and wit is required in all these trades. They also 
constructed things, while the Knight can "but use, occupy, 
and waste evermore." 

A Plowman now rushes in, bristling with scorn and coarse 
speech for the others. He claims the honors, and cleverly 
proves that nobility of ancestry does not ennoble succeeding 
generations. He maintains that the person who is most noble 
is he who is most independent. God is noblest of all because 
by his own labor he is self-sufficient. Artisans and plowmen 
make what the Merchant sells and the Knight consumes. 
When the Merchant argues that in that case beasts are more 
noble than men because they are more independent, the Plow- 
man retorts (again in the manner of Witty and Witless) that 
man is more noble because of his wit and soul given him by 
God. 

The others seem impressed by his argument and wish to 
detain him, but he, after the fashion of his prototype Piers 
Plowman, says he has more important work to do and will 
not waste his time. He gives vent to a virtuous speech in 
praise of his honest toil and its contentment, and finally 
promises to return and argue further after he buys some 
grease for his cart. The Knight and the Merchant follow him 



92 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

out, in search of recreation. This ends part one of the play, 
and an intermission follows, possibly providing some lighter 
entertainment for the audience or the guests at dinner. 

The second part begins with the Plowman on hand await- 
ing the arrival of the others. When they appear he renews 
his attack, berating them for their inherited wealth, and 
demands : 

When Adam delved and Eve span, 
Who was then a gentleman? 

We notice a close parallel to this speech in Heywood's Spider 
and the Fly, when the flies protest against the landed aristoc- 
racy of the spiders. The Plowman holds that both noble and 
serf are human beings, liable alike to sickness and sudden 
death. This second part is the Plowman's completely; the 
others merely ask questions while he discourses upon social 
democracy. At one moment he arouses the ire of the Knight 
and they come to the point of blows. This is the nearest to 
rough comedy that the play ventures, although there is a 
certain boisterous humor in the words of the Plowman. The 
Knight and the Merchant finally leave, and the Plowman 
addresses his last words to the audience, suggesting no imme- 
diate remedy for present evil conditions, 

But let them alone till God will send 
A time till our Governors may intend 
Of all enormities the reformation. 

This recommendation was eminently safe for one in Hey- 
wood's position at court. As for the Plowman, 

I will let the world wag, and home will I go 
And drive the plow as I was wont to do. 

After he retires, the others return for a few minutes in order 
to declare that they think the Plowman a surly churl, as are 
all others of his class. They then give way to the Philosopher 
who speaks an epilogue emphasizing, 



DRAMATIC WORKS 93 

The thing that maketh a gentleman to be 
Is but virtue and gentle conditions, 

and admits that anyone can be a gentleman, that the world 
should be amended and the guilty punished. 

Authorship 

The problem of authorship does not seem to be difficult, in 
spite of the anonymity of the title page. The colophon 
reads, "Johannes Rastell me fieri fecit. Cum priuilegio regali." 
This is ambiguous, as Brooke points out, for it might mean 
"John Rastell caused me to be printed" (as publisher), or 
"caused me to be composed," which might imply that he sug- 
gested the writing of it to the unnamed poet. If he had wished 
to show himself the author of it, he might have said simply, 
"Rastell me fecit." 15 Bishop Bale first suggests that this 
play was done by Rastell, but then changes "reliquit" to 
"primum edidit" in his revised Catalogus, implying that 
though he did not know who the author was, he knew it was 
not Rastell. 16 

The meter, diction, and poetic characteristics are similar 
to the other debats of Hey wood. The resemblance between it 
and Witty and Witless is especially strong; identical riming 
scheme, in couplets, with the epilogue in rime royal. Some 
points in debate are employed in both plays, as noticed 
above. As we shall see presently, Chaucer, a favorite source 
of inspiration for Hey wood, has been used here also. The 
Spider and the Fly, which was planned and begun by Heywood 
in this period, takes up the same theme, and in one place 
already noticed, uses the same language. 17 The most conclu- 
sive proof of Heywood's authorship is seen in the frontispiece 
of this play, a cut of a man in a furred gown somewhat like 

15 C. F. T. Brooke, "Gentleness and Nobility, Authorship and Source," 
Mod. Lang. Review, v. VI, 1911, p. 458. 

16 See page 21. 

17 Also in the Weather, cf. pp. 96-7. 



94 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

that of a Master of Arts, a flat cap, and a dagger in his belt. 
Below on either side of his feet are the initials "I. H." This 
alone leads ns to suspect Iohn Heywood. In his Spider and 
the Fly, moreover, the same woodcut, with the same initials, 
is placed at the beginning of the book and is printed again at 
page 23. This duplication is the most convincing evidence 
of Heywood's authorship. 18 

Source 

Chaucer has given Heywood quite as many lines in this 
work as in the Four P's and the Pardoner and Friar. C. F. 
Tucker Brooke has already shown that the discussion of 
gentlehood and the true gentleman was suggested by the 
same problem in connection with the Wife of Bath's Tale. 
In addition to the general statement of the problem, it ap- 
pears that Heywood has taken some 25 lines direct from 
Chaucer. 19 

This disputation, however, was not a thing of academic 
cast. It refers slightly to old matters of debate; its discus- 
sion relates to the affairs of Tudor England. The play does 
not deal with its problem merely for a display of specious 
argument and forensic ability, but primarily because some- 
thing is wrong with the world. In this debate Heywood comes 
nearest to the Spider and the Fly, in which he deals with 
contemporary conditions and events. The characters them- 
selves are more related to living people than the personified 
abstractions in Witty and Witless or Love. One of these, the 
Philosopher, who speaks the epilogue, is a common figure in 

18 C. W. Wallace, Evolution, p. 52, assigns the dialogue of Gentleness and 
Nobility to Cornish. He attributes to Heywood the debat of Love and Riches, 
presented in 1527 at court and described by Hall for that year. He suggests 
that the dialogue of Youth and Riches, 1552, is an adaptation of this earlier 
work. Feuillerat, Revels, pp. 60 and 278, states there is no ground whatever 
for believing that Heywood wrote this play; that it was more likely done 
by Sir Thomas Chaloner. 

19 C. F. T. Brooke, Mod. Lang. Review, v. VI, p. 458. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 95 

the moralities before and after Heywood's day. His purpose 
here obviously is to urge reformation, to drive home certain 
ideas proclaimed in the debate and in general to bind the 
whole matter together by taking a less personal view of the 
problem. The interlude may have been presented at court 
before Henry. The tone of the play is that of a young man 
urged to utterance by youthful speculation, and was brought 
forward, probably in 1529-1530 when John Rastell was still 
printing, at a time when Henry was tolerant towards popular 
discussion of social problems. More's Utopia, which prob- 
ably gave some ideas to Heywood's Plowman concerning the 
choice of governors and lawmakers, Skelton's poems, Tin- 
dale's Practice of Prelates, and many other works dealing with 
public affairs were possible only at this time, and would have 
been sternly scrutinized if they had come out, say, after 1535 . 20 

THE PLAY OF THE WEATHER 

In 1533 William Rastell printed "The Play of the Wether, 
A New and a very mery enterlude of all maner wethers, made 
by John Hey wood." A second, undated edition later ap- 
peared, which was followed by a third, printed between 1564 
and 1576 by Anthony Kytson. This play is a border-line 
case in drama, a combination of disputation and farce, more 
advanced in structure than Love, but shorter, containing only 
1250 lines. 

Content 

Jupiter, somewhat after the manner of Herod and Pilate 

20 The discussion of social and economic conditions was not excluded from 
popular drama at this time. Suffolk, in a letter to Cromwell, May 15, 1537, 
tells of a May game "played last May day, which play was of a king how 
he should rule his realm, in which one played Husbandry and said many things 
against gentlemen, more than was in the book of the play." He reports he 
has ordered the justices of the shire to have regard to light persons, espe- 
cially at games and plays, and would like the King's letters to the same 
effect. Brewer, XH, p. 557. 



96 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

in mystery plays, sits on his throne and enlarges upon his 
glory, pomp, and power. He says that he has given all sorts 
of weather, which is in his control, to mankind, and now he 
will graciously hear complaints and petitions regarding it. 
Merry Report, termed the vice by Heywood, enters and in- 
dulges in witticisms with Jupiter, and urges that he be 
chosen as messenger in all this business. Jupiter is willing, 
and sends him abroad for petitioners, while a song is sung, 
with Jupiter listening from the throne. Thus, in the manner 
of modern musical comedies, the stage is kept busy and a 
lapse of time is shown. Merry Report returns; Jupiter retires 
from view while his agent interviews a Gentleman who comes 
in sounding his hunting horn. Merry Report pokes indecent 
fun at him, scorns his "goodly occupation" in precisely the 
same fashion as the Plowman in Gentleness and Nobility, and 
finally introduces him to Jupiter, from whom he begs fair 
weather for his hunting. He urges that every wight should 
have his desire, especially the nobility and grand gentlemen, 
because they are most necessary to the commonwealth — the 
same argument expressed by the Knight in Gentleness and 
Nobility. Merry Report thereupon makes caustic comment, 
and turns to consider a Merchant who, like his double in the 
preceding disputation, prays for special concessions because 
he and his fellows are most necessary to the state. He wishes 
clear weather and variable winds to bring his cargoes over the 
seas. Jupiter promises aid, and seems somewhat more cor- 
dial to him than to the Gentleman. A Ranger appears and 
complains to Merry Report that his wages are small and his 
work severe. Rangers' best fortune is a "windfall" by which 
they get whatever fruit or wood falls from the trees, and he 
therefore craves blustery storms and bad weather. Merry 
Report comments upon this selfishness and will not let him 
speak to Jupiter, and the Ranger departs in a huff. A Water- 
Miller comes in, saying that water-millers are never heard by 
any god, that they cry continually for rain and scarcely ever 



DRAMATIC WORKS 97 

get it. Merry Report rebukes him for his ill-mannered au- 
dacity, whereupon they argue about behavior and manners, 
but are interrupted by a Wind-Miller who comes a-begging 
for more wind. The two millers debate and discuss their pro- 
fessional merits, and for nearly 200 lines a disputation im- 
pedes the action of the play. Merry Report finally silences 
them and sends them off with vague promises. 

An elegant Gentlewoman now enters, and Merry Report 
has much to say about her, more amusing than shocking to 
Heywood's audience. After much of this indecent irrele- 
vancy, she declares that she is beautiful and wishes to 
preserve her beauty against summer sun and winter frost. 
She spends her days in visiting friends and in walking 
abroad, and her evenings in dancing and singing. Her ex- 
aminer shows his intense dislike for this conduct and for all 
such members of the "idle rich" class, until he hears that she 
can sing. Thereupon they each sing a ditty, and Merry 
Report is completely won over to her. A Laundress, coarse, 
vulgar, and sharp of tongue, now interrupts. She has nothing 
but scorn for the Gentlewoman, like the Plowman for the 
Knight in Gentleness and Nobility. She does not envy her 
beauty, but rails against her idleness in vigorous terms. She 
has to labor for this creature of pleasure, and demands sunny 
weather that her clothes may bleach well. After the Gentle- 
woman retires before her wrath, she exchanges energetic 
abuse with Merry Report. The last petitioner is a Boy, "the 
least that can play" as the directions read, who represents 
a hundred boys who are fond of trapping birds and making 
snow-balls. He requests more snow and even offers to buy a 
bushel or two from the god. Merry Report again promises 
aid, and, turning to Jupiter, makes a complete summary of 
the requests and complaints — a convenient thing for a 
drowsy audience. He is praised for his service by Jupiter and 
instructed to bring in all the suitors for the final award. To 
them he announces that he will continue to dispense a wide 



98 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

variety of weathers, whereupon each voices his approval. 
The lesson suggested to them all is that they are individually 
parts of a whole, and that each depends upon the other. 

Source 

No direct source has yet been discovered for this play. It 
seems to have been based upon some of the matters hinted at 
in Gentleness and Nobility but not discussed in that work 
because of its natural limitations. The ideas expressed by 
the Gentleman, the Merchant, and the Laundress seem to be 
extensions of the arguments in the more restricted disputa- 
tion. The doctrine of interdependence which is preached in 
this play is suggested by the Philosopher in the epilogue to 
Gentleness and Nobility, and is taught at the conclusion of the 
Spider and the Fly. It was even proclaimed in the motto 
worn in the new hat Queen Mary gave him. 21 

Presentation 

From a reference to the king supping at board in the Boy's 
speech, it is evident that this play was presented before 
Henry at a banquet: 

A hundred boys that stood together 
Where they heard one say in a cry 
That my godfather, God Almighty, 
Was come from heaven, by his own accord, 
This night to sup here with my lord. 22 

As in the case of his other plays, no chronological clue is 
given, unless we enlarge upon a remark made by the Wind- 
Miller: "How rain hath priced corn within this vii year" (1. 
636). This might refer to the great rains of 1527 and the 

21 J. Q. Adams, Jr., in "A source for Heywood's Play of the Wether," 
Mod. Lang. Notes, v. XXII, p. 262, points out that a similar petitioning of 
Jupiter for conflicting and opposite boons is treated in the same light vein 
by Lucian in the Icaro-Menippus. 

22 Lines 1024-28. Boas, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. V, p. 93 ff. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 99 

dearth in 1528, mentioned by Holinshed. 23 But even this 
reference, made in connection with "vii year" to signify an 
indefinite period of time, does not help us materially. 

The Weather has metrical characteristics similar to the 
other plays in this group. The earlier portions of Love are 
in rime royal, as is the conclusion, but the debating is in 
couplets. So in the Weather, Jupiter's opening and closing 
speeches are in rime royal and the rest of the play is written 
in couplets, save for occasional quatrains. This play, which 
seems more mature and developed than the simpler disputa- 
tions already described, extends and applies more widely the 
dramatic lessons learned in his earlier writing. It is an en- 
largement of the debat, a multiform discussion of a general 
theme involving debates between the Gentleman and the 
Merchant, the two Millers, the Gentlewoman and the 
Laundress. To this is added the vice Merry Report, who is 
more of a farcical character than his brother in Love. Jupiter 
does not suggest any classical influence; he was considered a 
more proper figure to use in this way than Heywood's Chris- 
tian God. 

The element of farce is naturally much stronger than in 
his earlier efforts; the direction was ever towards a self- 
sustained comedy. The debat could not go very far in drama 
unless it took on plot, action, and a more human appeal, and 
Heywood appears to have perceived this. He avoids, more- 
over, downright didacticism in the Weather with commenda- 
ble tact, but one who reads his works will not fail to see in 
them something more than the writings of an entertainer and 
humorist. In this play, in Gentleness and Nobility, in the 
Spider and the Fly, and even in his Dialogue of Proverbs con- 
cerning Marriage, he is discussing the problems in the world 
about him and searching for some solution of social questions. 

The disputation which Heywood dramatized did not be- 
come an important form in the plays of his contemporaries 

23 Suggested by Pollard in Gayley, Rep. Eng. Comedies, v. I, p. 40. 



100 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

or of the early Elizabethans. While there are frequent de- 
bates between opposing characters in the moralities of the 
time, these are arrived at naturally in the action of the plays 
and are obviously not disputations introduced into the plot in 
order to help it along. In the anonymous Interlude of Youth, 
for instance, Charity and Youth debate the right and wrong 
of worldliness; in the Nature of the Four Elements, Nature 
and Humanity have disputes over the same matter, but in 
neither of these cases do we have the debat as written by 
Heywood. No extant plays contemporary with Heywood 
show this form; in the non -extant pieces whose names we 
have preserved, three appear to be disputations, Riches and 
Love (1527), Riches and Youth (1552), and the long, over- 
peopled Love and Life by William Baldwin (1556) , 24 It is 
profitless to speculate on the nature of these plays which do 
not exist. The debat was non-dramatic before Heywood put 
it on the boards. The genre lingered throughout the greater 
part of the century in England and in Germany, especially 
in the ballad form. Thynne's Disputation between Pride and 
Lowliness, and a number of lost ballads recorded in the 
Stationers Register, such as the Dialogue between Age and 
Youth, God and Man, Death and Youth, show the persistency 
of this type. The book of Robin Conscience, a disputation 
written in dramatic form though probably never acted, is a 
triple discussion between Robin and his father Covetousness, 
his mother Newguise, and his sister Proud Beauty. 25 

Farces 

Judging from the early Tudor plays that have come down 
to us, Heywood's farces are as unique in dramatic history as 
his debats. After the decline of the Roman theater, farce 
lived down to the seventh century, vanished, and appeared 

24 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, pp. 194, 201. 

25 W. C. Hazlitt, Early Popular Poetry, v. Ill, p. 221; C. Herford, Lit. 
Relations Germany and England, p. 32. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 101 

again in the fifteenth. It very probably existed during the 
middle ages, though not preserved in writing. Chambers 
has shown that popular plays were acted in the day of the 
miracles. 26 When in Tudor drama the farce appears under 
the too general name of interlude, it is different from the 
comic passages of the miracle and morality plays. Even the 
Mak episode in the Towneley Secunda Pastorum, though a 
complete farce in itself, is dependent upon and subsidiary to 
the central Christmas story. The comedy of the Tudor inter- 
lude is primary, the object of the play, not incidental humor 
added to enliven a dull story. 

THE FOUR P'S 

One of the most humorous of Heywood's farces, though not 
the most dramatic, is "The playe called the Foure PP, a newe 
and very mery enterlude of A palmer, A pardoner, A poty- 
cary, A pedler, made by John Heewood." This was printed 
by Wyllyam Myddylton, undated; though no work that is 
known came from Middleton's press before 1543 or subse- 
quent to 1547. There is an undated copy in the Bodleian 

26 "In the well-known Wyclifite sermon against miracle plays, an imaginary 
opponent of the preacher's argument is made to say that after all it is 'lesse 
yvels that thei have thyre recreation by pleyinge of myraclis than bi pleyinge 
of other japis'; and again that 'to pley in rebaudye' is worse than 'to pley 
in myriclis'." The tone of the passage implies that there were other plays 
than the religious ones. This is a contribution of Chambers, never before 
suggested by this material. Med. Stage, v. I, p. 84. 

Regarding the renascence of farce in the fifteenth century, he also says, 
"It is possible that, as is here suggested, that renascence was but the coming 
to light again of an earth-bourne of dramatic tradition that had worked 
its way beneath the ground ever since the theatres of the Empire fell." 
v. I, p. 85. 

Some few old Mss. show that fifteenth century farce was not an unprece- 
dented thing; as Le Garqon et VAveugle (Flanders, 1266-1290?), and the 
fourteenth century dramatic version of the Dame Sirith story (De Clerico et 
PueUa). For a discussion of classical comedy and medieval farce, see 
Creizenach, Geschichte des N. Dramas, v. I, p. 388. 



102 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

printed by Copland, and an edition dated 1569, printed by 
John Allde, which does not bear Heywood's name. 

Content 

The story of the play is very simple, the interest centering 
in the narratives told by the actors. A Pardoner, laden with 
relics, meets a Palmer, a Peddler, and an Apothecary. Each 
good-naturedly attacks the frauds of the others' professions 
while he praises his own work, its virtue and honesty. When 
all have spoken, they at last drop the mask of professional 
formality which they assume before the public and agree that 
if they were united under a good leader this combination of 
rare knaves would be invincible. In order to determine who 
shall be their leader, they plan to tell lies; the one who tells 
the most extravagant falsehood will be hailed as chief of the 
band. The Peddler acts as judge, and the 'Potecary recounts 
a tale of vulgarity matched only in jest-book literature. It is 
almost too crude for the fabliau type in which Heywood 
delighted. The Pardoner tells a better story of a trip to hell 
for a former mistress who had died. The devils welcome him 
warmly, for he is an old friend of theirs. They give him back 
his lady with alacrity, and urge him to take as many more 
women as he will. Women are not popular in hell, and the 
Pardoner is requested to give his pardons only to women so 
that they will not come there to annoy the devils. 

For all we devils within this den 
Have more to do with two women 
Than with all the charge we have beside. 

The Palmer says all this is strange to him, for he has never 
known a sharp-tongued woman. Instantly all say that this is 
the greatest lie of all, and he is voted the winner of the con- 
test. Then follows a conclusion in which the audience is 
urged to submit to the Church universal and not to make 
sport of it. This sounds sarcastic to us, but Heywood per- 



DRAMATIC WORKS 103 

ceived the difference between attacking the institution itself 
and the faults of the individuals who supported it. 

Authorship 

Only one student of this drama, I believe, has questioned 
the accepted authorship of the play. Realizing that there 
must have been a common author for this play and for the Par- 
doner and Friar and John, Tib, and Sir John, which are 
anonymous, Wallace attributes all three to the pen of Cor- 
nish, and suggests that the publisher printed Heywood's 
name in the Four P"s by mistake. 27 This mistake, however, 
is very improbable. Heywood was in London, at court, 
when Middleton was printing, a man of affairs and of some 
literary standing, for this is the period of his early Proverbs 
and Epigrams. If the mistake were made, it would not have 
been perpetuated by Bale, who in both his Index and Cata- 
logus assigns the play to him. Pitseus, who knew Heywood 
and his sons, and evidently wrote of the father from first- 
hand knowledge, also says this play is his. No better 
evidence, therefore, could be desired than the state- 
ments of a contemporary publisher and the only literary 
biographers of the time who attempted scholarly exactitude 
in their work. 

Source 

A French sottie, the Farce nouvelle d'un Pardonneur, d'un 
Triacleur, et d'une Taverniere, appears to be the most direct 
source for this piece. This same farce was used in the Par- 
doner and Friar. It tells of a Pardoner who is laden with 
the same relics, and who describes the virtue of his wares in 
the village square. A Triacleur, or peddling apothecary, 
also proclaims his goods. The two fall to abusing each other 
and their special frauds, but are ultimately reconciled upon 
the suggestion of a visit to a tavern where they will find the 

27 C. Wallace, Evolution, pp. 50-3, 81-3. 






104 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

mistress very hospitable. The Pardoner is almost a double 
of Heywood's man, and the Triacleur is the 'Potecary in the 
Four P's. 2S The humor of Heywood's farces has a definite 
Chaucerian flavor, and the Canterbury Tales have been dis- 
covered as the inspiration for Heywood's best characters, the 
Pardoners in this piece and in the Pardoner and Friar. 
These Pardoners are almost twin brothers, and in depicting 
them Heywood has taken 65 lines from the Pardoner's 
Prologue, which are scarcely changed by his hand. The 
Prologue to the Tales is also used by him to describe his 
Pardoner's relics. 29 

Presentation 

As in the case of the other plays of Heywood, the date of 
publication is not an important clue to the date of writing 
and of presentation. We know of three editions of this play, 
all probably later than 1543. It is not impossible, however, 
that Rastell printed a first edition in 1533, when he was 
bringing out Heywood's other plays. The piece is clearly 
related to the other farces of this group, and Pollard believes 
that it is even earlier than the Pardoner and Friar because of 
its undramatic quality, its easy narrative and tame conclu- 
sion. 30 It is obviously less dramatic than the John, Tib, 
and Sir John. The Four P's is mentioned with other early 
plays in the Play of Sir Thomas More as if at the end of the 

28 Karl Young presents a full statement of these similarities and evidences 
of direct borrowing in "Influence of French Farce on the Plays of John 
Heywood," in Modern Philology, v. II, pp. 97-124, 1904. See also Sidney Lee, 
French Renaissance in England, p. 373. 

29 Swoboda, Heywood als Dramatiker, p. 63 ff. has already presented and 
discussed these direct borrowings. Swoboda also suggests that Skelton, a 
Chaucerian in many of his moods, was imitated by Heywood in many of his 
devices, his style and meter (p. 67), but this matter is full of specidation. 
In the Word List to Farmer's Dram. Works Heywood, are cited many simi- 
larities of expression in Chaucer and Heywood which indicate direct bor- 
rowing. 

30 In Gayley, Rep. Eng. Comedies, v. I, pp. 12-3. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 105 

century it were known to have been popular before Sir 
Thomas More's death. This would place the play with the 
others printed in 1533. The reference to the Regent, one of 
Henry's largest ships of war, which was burned in an engage- 
ment with the French in 1513, is used by Wallace to prove 
that the play was written by Cornish at an earlier date. 
This ship is mentioned, it seems, merely to help in illustrating 
a point of size, and the memory of the vessel would 
serve quite as well as the actuality. Not much more can 
be made out of this casual reference than the allusion to 
Pope Leo in the Pardoner and Friar which we shall examine 
presently. 

The conclusion of this interlude is decidedly Catholic in 
tone, even though the churchmen in it are knaves. A play 
of this sort, demanding no stage properties or theatrical 
equipment, would have been admirably suited to a court 
dinner where entertainment was demanded. It would have 
delighted the king and his followers who were, just before 
1533/4, neither strongly Catholic nor completely Protestant. 
The satire of the churchmen would be relished; the pious 
conclusion tolerated. To readers of Chaucer, the satire in 
Heywood's farces is not unusual, and in this play, as in the 
Pardoner and Friar, the edge is dulled when we recall that 
Chaucer had said the same words a century and a half before 
him. Other Catholics went much farther than Heywood 
in satirizing the faults of their co-religionists. 

THE PARDONER AND THE FRIAR 

A play very close to the Four P's is "A mery Pley betwene 
the pardoner and the frere, the curate and neybour Pratte," 
printed by William Rastell, April 5, 1533. This anonymous 
piece, about 1000 lines in length, is of the simplest structure 
with a negligible plot. The dramatic quality is ordinary 
dialogue and horse-play, and because of this crudity has 
been suggested as very early work. 



106 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Content 

The scene of the action is within a church; the place where 
the actors speak is the chancel, the audience is supposedly 
seated in the nave. The Friar enters and salutes the congre- 
gation, "Deus hie, the Holy Trinity preserve all that now here 
be!" He comes, he says, not for money, but for the edification 
of souls. Friars have professed willful poverty; they wish 
no money, nor care anything for delicate food; but for this 
they must not be despised. He will make the people a simple 
discourse but will pray briefly before beginning. While he 
kneels, a Pardoner "with all his relics" enters. He addresses 
the audience and hopes that all will receive his pardons 
"granted by the Pope in his bulls under lead." He displays 
his relics for sale: a holy Jew's hip which will cure many ills, 
including jealousy of one's wife, even if she "be taken with 
friars two or three," a holy mitten, an arm of St. Sunday, the 
great toe of the Holy Trinity, a veil belonging to the Virgin 
which she wore with her French hood, the jaw-bone of All 
Hallows, the brain-pan of St. Michael. He shows the pope's 
bull, "that Pope Leo the tenth hath granted with his hand." 
The Friar has already begun to preach his sermon. Both 
speak at the same time, as shown in the text by alternating 
lines. The Pardoner continues to cite grants by Pope 
Julius "the sixth," Boniface ninth, and Innocent. Each 
speaker annoys the other, and in confusion they stop their 
addresses and scold about the interruption. This heightens 
into abuse, each one declaring the knavery and falsehood of 
the other to the people before them. This sort of fly ting is 
maintained for some 350 lines, and takes on the quality of a 
debate about the merits and villanies of pardoners and friars, 
and the power of pardons and relics over alms and sermons. 
They finally lose patience utterly and fall to blows. The 
Curate enters and commands them to stop this wrangling 
and brawling. Each then tries to persuade the Curate to oust 
his enemy, but he decides to expel both of them and calls in 



DRAMATIC WORKS 107 

Neighbor Pratt to assist him. The Curate tells him that it is 
a godly task to beat friars and pardoners out of churches, 
and they set to work. The invaders fight long and well, how- 
ever, and when all are thoroughly wearied neither side has 
the victory. The Pardoner and Friar then leave the church, 
cursed and cursing. 

Authorship 

This anonymous play has generally been assigned to Hey- 
wood for obvious reasons, although the attribution has not 
remained uncontested. Wallace points out that at Christ- 
mas-tide, 1518, no revels were held at court because of the 
plague, and believes that during this lull Cornish, master of 
the Chapel Royal, wrote the Pardoner and Friar. Cornish, 
he assumes from the Troylous and Pandor, knew his Chaucer 
well, and this Chaucerian satire could come best from his 
hand. He objects to Heywood's authorship because William 
Rastell, his own brother-in-law, did not print his name in 
the 1533 edition; an inconceivable omission, he believes. 
Wallace suggests, therefore, that Heywood turned this 
manuscript over to Rastell to print along with some of his 
own work which appeared that year. He also finds it diffi- 
cult to believe that a good Catholic like Heywood would 
have written such a satire upon churchmen, Church practices, 
and the popes. 31 We have seen, however, that in 1533 Rastell 
published Heywood's Love and Weather, both bearing his 
name. These plays are far more 'literary' than either the 
Pardoner and Friar or John, Tib, and Sir John, which are not 
works for a Catholic poet to boast of as being his best writ- 
ings. Authorship did not mean so much to the individual in 
the sixteenth century as it does today, and the omission of 
Heywood's name in this troublesome time might have 
seemed advisable both to himself and his relative. In the 

31 C. Wallace, Evolution, pp. 50-3, 81-3. 



108 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

years 1543-47, when the Four P's was printed, Heywood 
was ostensibly a good Protestant, and permitted his name to 
be published with his satire. But a better explanation of 
anonymity has been offered by Pollard. The Love and 
Weather, printed in the same year, each possess a full-title 
page on which are a list of the dramatis personae and the 
name of the author. But neither the Pardoner and Friar 
nor John, Tib, and Sir John has a full-title page and a list of 
dramatis personae. If one were printed, the author's name 
would be, according to Rastell's custom then, on the full- 
title, and not in the head-title which is all that we have on 
the copies of these two plays. 32 Other considerations, more- 
over, suggest that Heywood was the author of the Pardoner 
and Friar. This farce closely resembles certain features of 
the Four P's. The Pardoners in both plays are very much 
akin, and both are derived from Chaucer's churchman. The 
same device, of abrupt blessing, introduction, and a state- 
ment of business, presents the first character on stage in both 
works. The Pardoner in the French farce already discussed 
gives common characteristics to these two English knaves. 
Two of the ridiculous relics, the great toe of the Trinity and 
the jaw-bone of All Hallows, appear in both interludes. Boas 
further shows that there is a significant parallelism in the 
other unusual relics employed, such as the buttock-bone of 
Pentecost, the arm of sweet St. Sunday, the eye-tooth of the 
Great Turk which prevents blindness, and the brain pan of 
St. Michael, a preservative against headache — all of which 
are used in one or the other of these plays. 

The farce of John, Tib, and Sir John is linked to these 
farces in the same group. Similarities between all three have 
already been noticed. Boas points out, for instance, that 
Heywood is fond of alluding to unfamiliar saints and shrines. 
The opening lines of the Palmer in the Four P's abound in 

32 Pollard, Gay ley, Rep. Eng. Comedies, v. I, p. 6; Boas, Camb. Hist. Eng. 
Lit., v. V., p. 92 ff. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 109 

such references; in John, Tib, and Sir John the husband 
appeals to "swete Saynt Dyryk" and the priest refers to the 
shrine of "Saynt Modwin," perhaps at Burton-on-Trent. 
John mentions "our Lady at Crome," as does the Palmer in 
the Four P's. The unsual word "nyfuls" (nifful, trifle) is 
found both in the Weather and in John, Tib, and Sir John. 
This word is also used by Chaucer (Cant. Tales, 1.7342). 
The phrase "vii yeare", signifying an indefinite period of time, 
occurs in Weather, Pardoner and Friar, and in John, Tib and 
Sir John. 33 

The objection that Heywood would not have written 
against his own Church in the fashion of any of these three 
plays is not sound. Some of the things that Catholics said 
about their Church make Heywood appear very restrained 
and circumspect. These plays were derived from Chaucer, a 
Catholic, and from France, a nation preeminently Catholic 
to the Elizabethans. Barclay, a Benedictine and later a strict 
Franciscan, took pains to elaborate the satire against clerics 
in his Ship of Fools from the materials used by Sebastian 
Brant. Skelton, the enfant terrible of Wolsey, who attacked 
Catholic churchmen with Protestant rigor, did so as a priest 
of the Church. In his Colyn Clout he opens fire upon worldly 
bishops, roving monks, nuns, and especially glosing friars 
who cheat the people, chiefly silly women, with stronger relish 
than Heywood in his most energetic satire. From the day of 
Piers Plowman Catholics were warned of pardoners and 
friars, "preaching the people for profit of their bellies," and 
deceiving them with papal bulls and fair speech. 34 This sort 
of thing, then, was not new to the ears of Heywood's audi- 
ences. They had been long disgusted with pardoners and 
friars and vicious parish priests, long before Heywood used 

33 Boas, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. V, p. 97. 

34 A-text, Piers Plowman. In Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. II, Chap. 8, "The 
English Chaucerians", is described the Pardoner and the Tapster, which 
contains a pardoner who appears closely related to Heywood's brothers. 



110 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

them for merriment. His purpose was to entertain, to make 
fun, not to denounce. Even in his Spider and Fly, written for 
the Catholic Queen Mary, he returns to his old vein and 
thrusts at friars: 

"There never was a Friar limitour that ducked 
So low, where begging won him twenty cheeses, 
As is the fly now to the spider rucked. (Cap. 9.) 

The objections to Heywood's authorship of the Pardoner 
and the Friar and John, Tib, and Sir John do not seem to be 
substantial. If it is at all doubtful that he wrote them, it is 
more than questionable that Cornish wrote them. As Boas 
has suggested, these farces may be assigned to Hey wood with 
some certainty because, so far as we know and evidence 
shows, it is not likely that two dramatists were at work at 
the same time who so closely resemble each other in style, 
technique, and material, and who would print their plays 
through the same press. 

The sources of this play, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and 
the French Farce nouvelle d'un Pardonneur, d'un Triacleur, 
et d'une Taverniere, have already been discussed under this 
head in connection with the Four P's. 

Presentation 

Although this play was printed in 1533, it has been gen- 
erally regarded as antedating December, 1521, because of the 
reference to Pope Leo X. This is not so valuable a clue to the 
date of composition and presentation as it might seem. There 
is in the same passage a reference to Julius VI. There never 
was a Pope Julius VI, the highest of that name being the 
third, and this may be taken as part of Heywood's satire, 
perhaps an intentional jumbling of the matter. 35 The king 
is also mentioned, cited by the Pardoner to prevent disturb- 
ance. But the reference to Leo X would be quite as effective 

35 Farmer, Dramatic Works Hey wood, p. 244. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 111 

after he was dead as when he was living. Obviously it would 
be convenient for the Catholic writer to refer to such an 
unpleasant institution as the sale of indulgences in the 
churches after the man who had authorized it had died, and 
have him responsible for the Pardoner's ribaldries. 36 

The Four P's has in the past been generally regarded as 
later work than the Pardoner and Friar, which was placed 
early in Heywood's career owing to the reference to Leo X. 
The Pardoner and Friar is a much better play, however. It is 
more dramatic, the dialogue is better, the conclusion is less 
tame and casual. In spite of the variance in dates of publi- 
cation, these two farces are close together. In the Four P's 
the characters debate over their professional merits, then 
tell witty stories; in the Pardoner and Friar there is the 
same debate over professional merits, better done this time, 
two burlesque sermons, and a brawl. It seems as if Hey wood 
had applied the debat technique to farcical ends. The Par- 
doner and Friar is a jeu-parti of the French upon the English 
stage. The burlesqued sermons have their counterpart in 
the sermon joyeux of the Feast of Fools, and are of the type 
preached at medieval sotties which persisted in France and 
England after Heywood's day. 37 This play reminds us of 
Chaucer, but Chaucer resembles the writers of French fab- 
liaux and farces. Heywood borrowed from the French, and 
his meter and sentiment are loyal to the sottie. His octo- 
syllabic couplets, so largely used, are the customary meter of 
similar French plays, the thrust and "chop-logic" of his plays 
are of French stock, from the debat and the sottie. 38 

As in the decay of classical comedy, so in the degeneracy 
of an intellectual form of entertainment like the debat, the 

36 Pollard, in Gayley, Rep. Eng. Comedies, v. I, p. 11. 

37 There is a sermon joyeux on Folie in Lyndsay's Satire of the Three 
Estates. Cf. Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 157; Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., 

v. Ill, p. 124. 

38 Lee, French Renaissance in England, p. 374., 



112 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

rough-and-tumble fighting and brawling which conclude this 
play, are appeals to popular interest. Those who were not 
amused by the satire, or the disputation (some 400 lines 
long), were to be gratified by the riot at the close. The pur- 
pose of the play is entertainment, not edification. 39 

JOHN, TIB, AND SIR JOHN 

The best of these farces is "A mery play betwene Johan 
Johan the husband, Tyb his Wfe, and syr Jhon the preest," 
which was printed anonymously by William Rastell on 
February 12, 1533/4. This short play, not quite 700 lines in 
length, has only the three characters named in its title, but 
these are sufficient for a lively domestic farce of the fabliau 
type. 

Content 

John John, the husband, complains to the audience that 
his wife is out gadding with an old crony. When she comes 
home he swears he will beat her to the ground and drag her 
about by the hair, and begs the audience not to prevent him. 

39 An interesting account of this play, from the Historia Histrionica (1699) 
is quoted from Dodsley, v. I, clxiv. : 

Lovewit. These things however are far from that which we understand 
by the name of a play. 

Trueman. It may be so; but these were the plays of those times. After- 
wards in the reign of king Henry VIII. both the subject and form of these 
plays began to alter, and have since varied more and more. I have by me, 
a thing called A merry play between the Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate 
and Neybour Pratte. Printed the 5th of April 1533, which was 24 Henry VIII. 
(a few years before the dissolution of monasteries). The design of this play 
was to ridicule Friers and Pardoners. Of which I'll give you a taste. To 
begin it, the Frier enters with these words: 

Deus hie; etc. 

(then follows by quotation and abridgment, a synopsis of the play.) 
. . . And so the farce ends with a drawn battle. Such as this were the 
plays of that age, acted in gentlemen's halls at Christmas, or such like festival 
times, by the servants of the family, or strollers, who went about and made 
it a trade, etc. etc. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 113 

All honest men should beat their wives. For nearly a hundred 
lines he rants on, and suddenly wonders if she can be with 
Sir John, the parish priest. Many wives, he knows, go to his 
chamber, and again he promises her a severe beating. Tib 
enters suddenly and demands to know whom he will beat. He 
humbly denies he will beat anyone, only pound a salted fish 
before he cooks it. Tib then says she knows she will be ill 
during the night, and John tells the audience in that case it 
will be necessary for him to fetch the priest to her bedside to 
comfort her. Tib asks him where he thinks she has been, and 
he sneeringly suggests she has been praying at St. Paul's. 
She says she and her gossip Margery made a pie with Sir 
John. He is suspicious, but she asserts that the priest is a 
holy man. John is cowed, but makes asides to the audience 
expressing his doubts. Tib produces the pie, and John, 
delighted, proposes heating it and devouring it immediately. 
But she demands that Sir John be invited to dine with them. 
He is compelled to set the table and perform other chores, 
and then departs for the priest. 

This scene is evidently the interior of John's house, with 
the hearth in view. He crosses the stage and comes to the 
priest's door. Sir John guilefully invites him to stay and sup, 
saying Tib is angry with him because he constantly rebukes 
her in confession for the slight sin that is in her. She is very 
virtuous, however, he confides, because he has tempted her 
to test her honesty, which is always victorious. John appears 
to be impressed, but tells the audience he is not at all fooled. 
When the priest hears that his pie is to be the supper, he will- 
ingly assents to accompany John, and promises to protect him 
from Tib's anger for being so long on the errand. As soon as 
they enter, however, Tib scolds John, and the priest does 
nothing to save him. He is put to work, while Sir John tells 
Tib how he put her husband off the scent. John is sent for 
water in a leaky pail which keeps him well occupied until Tib 
orders him to stop the holes with wax. In order to do this, he 



114 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

must chafe wax by the fire. His fingers crack, the smoke gets 
in his eyes, and he is thoroughly miserable while the other two 
sit at table and eat supper. Tib requests some merry tales 
from the priest by way of recreation, and he responds by 
telling of three "miracles" he performs in his relations with 
women. John, by the fire, finally becomes exasperated, and 
turns. He has had no supper and now the meal is over. 
Hard words are passed, and all fall to fighting. After beating 
John soundly, the wife and her lover run out of the house 
together. John boasts to the audience of the whipping he has 
given them, but suddenly suspects sad things of his wife and 
the priest, and runs off so "see if they do me any villainy." 40 

Authorship 

This anonymous play has generally been accepted as 
Heywood's for the reasons given under the same head in the 
discussion of the Pardoner and Friar. Wallace assigns it to 
Cornish and would date it some two decades earlier than 
1534, holding that the French source was but an imitation of 
the English farce. This is the first time, I believe, that 
Heywood has been denied his long-enjoyed glory. Nothing 
definite in the evidence or argument, however, leads us to 
doubt his authorship. 41 

Source 

From the story of this play, it is obviously just the thing 
we should look for in the case of a fabliau dramatized. No 
fabliau has yet been found to be the original model for this 
farce, but a French play is the direct source for Heywood's 
drama. In the Farce nouuelle tresbonne etfort ioyeuse de Fernet 
qui va au vin, the wife sends her husband for wine, to get him 
out of the way so that she can entertain her lover. The 

40 Sir John is of the same east as Sir John in Misogonus, and in fact, with 
his numerous brothers in nearly all fabliaux. See Bond, Early Plays from 
the Italian, p. cxii. 

41 C. Wallace, Evolution, p. 51. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 115 

episode of melting the wax and the business of the meat pie 
are in this farce. It was "nouvellement imprime" in 1548, 
which is the only edition now known. The date of the first 
edition, or of composition, of course is unknown. 42 In both 
plays there are many similar false starts and returnings, but 
in the case of Pernet he comes back to watch the guilty pair, 
while John starts to go and returns before Sir John enters. 48 

It is evident even in outline that this play is more advanced 
dramatically than the plotless Pardoner and Friar, and was 
very probably a later work. It represents an important 
advance in comedy. It is a domestic farce, divorced com- 
pletely from the church drama of the middle ages, and even 
from the sottie, which is related by burlesque to the religious 
drama. The farce element in the mystery plays considerably 
antedates this, but here we have humorous drama sufficient 
unto itself, not merely a pleasant comic relief. Clever stories, 
racy and indecent, found in the fabliau and jest-book litera- 
ture, and not Biblical episodes or scholarly debates, are new 
materials for the plays which gradually evolve into the 
later drama that portrays individualities, people of human 
characteristics and moods. 

Ascriptions 

The play of Ther sites has been suggested as Hey wood's. 
This is based on a Latin play by Ravisius Textor, rector of 
the University of Paris, who died in 1524. The English ver- 
sion considerably expands the original, and includes a variety 

42 Pollard, in Gayley, Rep. Eng. Comedies, v. I, p. 16, says: "Thus despite 
the fact that the handling of the incidents in the English plays is far more 
skillful than in the French, it would seem too daring to suggest that the 
French farces can be borrowed from the English, and in any case we may 
imagine that the English dramatist did not make his new departure unaided, 
but was consciously working on the lines which had long been popular in 
France." Also see Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. V, p. 98. 

43 Farmer, Dramatic Works Hey wood, p. 264. Also cf. Young, Modern 
Philology, v. II, pp. 97-124; Lee, French Renaissance in England, p. 373. 



116 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEY WOOD 

of meters appropriate to the farcical incidents, adding details 
which would appeal to an English audience. Some of the 
relics owned by Heywood's Pardoners are used by Thersites's 
mother, and the verve and racy style of the farces are dupli- 
cated in this play. 44 Pollard has shown that the English 
dramatist was an Oxford man, from certain allusions to the 
university. It was probably a New Year's play, though in 
the epilogue there is a reference to Jane Seymour and her 
child, Prince Edward, which at least dates this portion 
between October 12 and 24, 1537. The trip to hell, referred 
to in the Four P's, is again used in this play. The English 
version was probably made after the publication of Textor's 
Dialogi in 1530. Heywood is the only dramatist we know of 
at this time writing plays at court; we recall the payment for 
a play before Princess Mary in March, 1538. The drama is a 
great improvement upon the others we have examined, but as 
the dates associated with it are later than the others, it would 
represent a natural improvement in Heywood's craftman- 
ship. If this play is not by him, it points in many ways to Hey- 
wood's influence upon the plays of his contemporaries. 45 

The play of Calisto and Meliboea has been assigned to 
Heywood by the late J. S. Farmer, who died before the writing 
of his promised Essay on Heywood. 46 In this essay, he in- 
tended to discuss this ascription, and merely outlines his 
case, too briefly, in his edition of Anonymous Plays. 47 This 
play, printed by John Rastell about 1530, is a partial English 
version of the Spanish Celestina, ending as a moral comedy, 
instead of the sordid tragedy in the original. The style, 

44 Boas, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. V, p. 108. 

45 Pollard, Gayley, Rep. Eng. Comedies, v. I, pp. 13-5; and in English 
Miracles Plays, pp. 213-4. 

46 Upon communicating with the Secretary of the Early English Drama 
Society, I find that Farmer did not leave manuscripts of this material 
which could be used in presenting his views and researches concerning 
Heywood. 

47 First series, Six Anonymous Plays, E. E. D. S., London, 1905, p. 237. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 117 

tricks of diction, phraseology, repetitions, "humour of filth," 
are all very similar to Heywood's work in his accepted plays. 
It supplies the desired link between the sottie of the Pardoner 
and Friar and the farce of John, Tib, and Sir John. Hey- 
wood's early printer, moreover, published this work also. 
Farmer suggests that if it is not Heywood's, it was written 
by the unknown dramatist who was doubtfully postulated as 
writing at the same time, using similar materials, and pub- 
lishing his plays through the same printer. 

The plays of Heywood which we have described carry on a 
tradition in drama which traces back to Chaucer. By the 
end of the fourteenth century secular themes had been intro- 
duced and treated in the manner of the religious plays. There 
was a French Estoire de Griselidis performed in 1395. 48 
Cornish presented his Troylous and Pandor at court in 1516. 49 
Ralph RadclifT, after Heywood, wrote a Griselda and a Meli- 
boeus for his boys at Hitchin. Grimald's Troilus and Ed- 
wards' P alamort and Arcite are also recalled. Chaucer, 
whom Chambers terms the full flower of the trouvcre in Eng- 
land, is also the chief of the English fabliau writers. In his 
farces Heywood goes back to the fabliau for material, hence 
the "Chaucerian flavor" which students detect in his works is 
derived from Chaucer by direct imitation, as we have seen, 
and by using the same continental tales. The fabliau is 
most easily studied in French literature where a great many 
have been preserved, but it probably existed in England, 
though not written down by clerics, who had no professional 
interest in the amusements of the tavern and the hall. 50 

48 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, p. 150. Notices of 15th century Dutch 
plays about Floris and Blanchefleur and Griselda are also referred to here. 

49 C. Wallace, Evolution, pp. 24, 48, 108. 

50 Schofield, in Engl. Lit. Conquest to Chaucer, p. 326, points out that 
Heywood, familiar with the Hundred Merry Tales and other jest-books, has 
merely carried out the tendency which we have noticed in French writers 
who adapted the jovial narrative to drama. Also R. W. Bond, Early Plays 
from Italian, p. xvi. 



118 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

French farce does not appear to have been known in 
England before Heywood. The relations between Heywood's 
plays and French farce seem closer perhaps because there is 
no similar material preserved in England with which these 
interludes can be compared. French farce is given to us 
almost entirely in one manuscript; we cannot reckon the Eng- 
lish farces and secular plays of the fourteenth century which 
have been lost. The fifteenth century in France, with its 
societes joyeuses and puys, the Clercs de la Basoche, the Enfants 
sans souci and others, developed a popular, comic drama 
which England, suffering under the War of the Roses, could 
not keep up with. 51 English minstrels did attempt this same 
thing, for about 1427 they are recorded as playing in inter- 
ludes. In the middle of the century, wandering interlude 
players stirred the professional minstrels into open competi- 
tion, and they organized a guild in 1469, which still exists 
today as the corporation of the "Musicians of London." 52 
Henry VII maintained his own minstrels and players, as did 
Henry VIII. These scanty evidences indicate that English 
farce existed before Heywood. But French farce is the only 
popular drama of this type which we can study as a back- 
ground for Heywood's plays. The medieval minstrel recited the 
fabliau. The themes of the fabliaux appear in the popular 
ballads, but it is not until we come to the humbler 
branches of narrative, the unimportant contes and dits that 
we find the dialogue proper. 53 The fabliau dialogue develops 
next, and by the fifteenth century the fabliau has been dram- 
atized into farce. The minstrels of France, like the wandering 
interlude players of England, were driven into the house- 
holds of the nobles for protection. The fabliau dies, and the 

51 See A. W. Ward, in Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. V, p. 22. 

52 L. T. Smith, York Plays, p. xxxvii; Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit, v. V, p. 28. 

53 Chambers, Med. Stage, v. I, p. 77 ff. Narrative minstrelsy involved the 
fabliau directly, also chansons a danser with a soloist and chorus, chansons de 
mal-marie'es, etc. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 119 

ininstrel becomes an actor, using his old materials to his new 
purpose. Karl Young has already pointed out that under 
Henry VII and Henry VIII the relations between England 
and France were very close. Heywood, in answer to the 
demand for a lighter drama at court, more entertaining than 
the old moralities, naturally took the comic drama as it was 
in France and adapted it to his English audiences. In dis- 
cussing the sources of his plays, we have seen him using forms 
which may have existed in England before him, but which 
were certainly popular in France; the fabliau-farce, the debat, 
the sermon- joy eux and other elements utilized in the sottie. 

Heywood is singularly unaffected by the Renaissance. 
The earliest example of classical figures in English comedy is 
in Thersites (1537), and we are not sure that this is his. All 
his other plays are before the time of Thersites, but he lived 
to see his drama swept away before the new fashions evident 
in Ralph Roister Doister, Jack Juggler, Nice Wanton, and 
Gammer Gurtons Needle. The play presented by Westcott 
before Elizabeth at Nonesuch, August 7, 1559, at which 
Heywood was present, was probably the Nice Wanton, and 
by that time drama had gone far beyond him and his Tudor 
interlude. 54 

Some of Heywood's plays appear to have been written for 
children to present. The Weather, for instance, contains two 
female parts, and a small boy is required. There are at least 
two songs sung, one by the Gentlewoman, who was probably 
a choir boy. In the play of Love there is one female part, and 
provision is made for several songs. Heywood, as we have 
already seen, had several groups of boys available for his 
plays at this time. The play of Witty and Witless, educational 
and formal, may also have been written for these court chil- 
dren to present. The plays which fall naturally in the debat 
group are all somewhat didactic, they end upon an edifying 
note, and are presented in a scholastic manner which would 

54 Murray, Dramatic Companies, v. I, p. 328. 



120 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

well become these schoolboys. The farces are very different; 
the wicked go off unpunished, the spirit is that of the fabliau, 
vulgar, comic, and without didacticism. These plays proba- 
bly were presented by adult actors, perhaps by the king's 
players or men of the Chapel. Heywood, we have seen, 
lived his life chiefly at court. While More and Rastell were 
keenly interested in dramatics, and we may suspect that 
Heywood indulged in amateur theatricals with these relatives 
at Gobions or Finsbury, yet the plays which we have studied 
were all probably presented at court. Court drama was a 
thing of many forms and types: elaborate masks and 
pageants, witty disputes and debates, accompanied at times 
by fighting at "the barriers," and merry interludes to grace 
a banquet or to round out an evening's entertainment. In 
spite of the lavishness and extravagance of the disports, the 
court was quite childish in its recreations, and these simple 
plays would suit its mood. After a banquet, at one end of 
the hall, possibly with a chair or two, the most elaborate 
play could be presented. 55 This sort of drama was demanded 
by professional actors, who wished brief plays which could 
be presented without many properties or actors, easily 
portable, and of general appeal. 56 In addition to the plays 
already mentioned, which were obviously written for children 
to present, there are several notices of "Heywood's boys" 
giving performances, the nature of which we can but guess. 
In 1538 he played an interlude before Princess Mary with 
children. His mask of Arthur's Knights, in 1539, required 
hobbyhorses, which possibly were used by the children of the 
Chapel, and the unknown play prepared for Edward in 1553 
was for twelve children. The little information we have 
concerning him as a writer of court masks shows Heywood 
versatile and active in providing a wide variety of enter- 
tainment for his courtly audience. 

55 Similar to the Spanish entremes, independent farces presented at dinners. 
66 Thorndike, Shakespeare s Theatre, pp. 14, 143. 



DRAMATIC WORKS 121 

The plays of Heywood which are preserved date from about 
1530. From biographical references, however, we know Hey- 
wood presented plays and was connected with court enter- 
tainments down to 1559, but we cannot discuss these missing 
works. The extant dramas are unlike other plays preserved 
from this early period, such as Medwall's Nature, Nature of the 
Four Elements, HicJcscorner, Youth, and Skelton's Magnifi- 
cence. In searching the titles of some non-extant plays of the 
time, there seem to be a few which may have been similar to 
Heywood's plays, such as Hit Nayle o'th'Head, Old Custome, 
both mentioned in the Play of Sir Thomas More, and debats 
like Riches and Love, and Riches and Youth. But in spite of 
the fact that we find nothing in drama like Heywood's works, 
neither Bale nor Pitseus praises him for any innovation. 
None of his contemporaries, it is true, pays much attention to 
him as a dramatist. The drama contemporary with Heywood 
was, for the most part, the morality play in its various forms : 
the pure type, as in Mundus et Infans; the school play, as in 
Redford's Wit and Science, or in adaptations of the Acolastus 
theme; the political and controversial morality, as Bale's 
King Johan and the anonymous Respublica, or Impatient 
Poverty. The classical plays, begun early with the Menaechmi 
and Phormio, do not contribute to dramatic development 
until the day of Ralph Roister Doister and Jack Juggler, by 
which time the early plays of Heywood had lost their interest 
and distinction. 87 

67 Thos. Wylley, vicar of Yoxford, c. 1537 writes to Cromwell: "I dedicate 
and offer to your Lordship a reverent receiving of the Sacrament as a Lenten 
matter declared by six children representing Christ, the Word of God, Paul, 
Austyn, a child, a nun called Ignoransy, as a secret thing that shall have his 
end once rehearsed afore your eye by the said children. The most part of 
the priests of Suffolk will not receive me into their churches to preach, but 
have disdained me ever since I made a play against the Pope's councillors, 
Error, Colle Clogger of Conscience, and Incredulity, that an the Act of 
Parliament had not followed after, I had been counted a great liar." Brewer, 
v. XII, p. 244. He also adds, "I have made a play called a Rude 



122 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

In Heywood we see the emergence from the medieval habit 
of considering humanity as a whole into the modern attitude 
towards realism and specific fact. The same transition is 
noticed in the non-dramatic literature of the century, from 
the treatment of humanity as types by Barclay to the highly 
specialized and realistic point of view of Greene in his knave 
literature. Heywood has used the vice twice in his plays, a 
character out of the morality, but in these instances out of 
French farce as well. The service performed by his inter- 
ludes was in getting drama away from the morality. His 
farces begin comedy proper in English drama. The develop- 
ment of a unifying plot, which came later with the classical 
comedy, was still necessary. But Heywood perceived in 
drama the means of pure diversion and entertainment, of 
giving pleasure as its sole purpose. The possibility of vital 
drama lay in an advance to the portraiture of individualities, 
and to that goal Heywood led the way. 58 

Commonalty. I am amaking of another called the Woman on the Rock, in 
the fire of faith affyning and apurging in the true purgatory, never to be 
seen but of your Lordship's eye." 

A certain Moryson, c. 1542 proposes to the king a yearly memorial of the 
destruction of the Bishop of Rome, similar to the celebration of the victory 
of Agincourt at Calais, and the destruction of the Danes at Hocktide. "It 
would be better that the plays of Robin Hood and Maid Marion should be 
forbidden and others devised to set forth and declare lively before the 
people's eyes the abomination and wickedness of the Bishop of Rome, monks, 
friars, nuns and such like, and to declare the obedience due to the king." 
Brewer, XVII, p. 707. 

68 Schelling, Eliz. Drama, v. II, p. 397; Chambers, Med. Stage, v. II, 
p. 205. 



CHAPTER VI 

Heywood's Non-Dramatic Works 

If Hey wood had mentioned his vocation in a word, it 
probably would have involved his service as a court musician. 
When his generation and his immediate successors paid 
tribute to him, they admired him as an epigrammatist. 
Doubtless he would have termed himself a poet, and have 
had in mind particularly his great work, the Spider and the 
Fly. We know him today, if at all, only as a rather crude 
figure in our primitive drama. His dramatic writings, how- 
ever, were to him and his times the most incidental part of 
his work, so much so, in fact, that when the 1562 edition of 
his "works" appeared, none of his interludes was included. 
They were not "literary," not important enough to rank 
with his other productions. If this emphasis on his non- 
dramatic works seems strange, the reader should be re- 
minded that this body of material is more than three times 
as large as the complete dramatic writings, including all the 
attributed pieces. 

The poetry of Heywood, for all his work is written in verse, 
falls into three divisions: his songs, ballads, and occasional 
pieces; his proverbs and epigrams; and the long poem which 
is his magnum opus. It is impossible to guess what from his 
pen may be lost to us, especially the written material used in 
connection with the court masks, but his preserved writings 
total a goodly figure, especially if we consider that his life 
was not given completely, nor even primarily, to literature. 

As a writer of songs and occasional poetry, Heywood must 
receive serious consideration. We have noticed in his dra- 
matic works how frequently provision is made for a song, 
and very probably he wrote many lyrics to be used in his 



124 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

court masks. It has already been suggested that as a com- 
poser of music he very likely wrote songs for court musicales. 
Just as his musical experiences extend over many years, so 
also his songs are not confined to any particular period of 
special activity. At least twelve of these lyric poems are 
preserved, which when put together show Heywood as a 
gallant courtier to the ladies, a political rimester, a devout 
and pious Catholic, a jolly good fellow whose geniality in 
drink and song would grace any banquet — in other words, 
these poems show him to be just what we have found him 
in a study of the facts of his life, a man who was many things 
in the course of his long span of years. 

One of the most interesting poems is "A Description of a 
Most Noble Lady, adviewed by John Heywood, presently; 
who advertising her years, as face, saith of her thus, in much 
eloquent phrase" — and then follow twenty quatrains. This 
is his tribute to Princess Mary, probably written early in 
1534, and after the fashion of Gabriel de Minut's La Paule- 
graphie, this may be termed Heywood's Marie-graphie, for 
we have in this poem another example of the graphie, used 
before in the Play of Love. The poem possesses freshness 
and sincerity, in spite of its superlatives and glorious com- 
parisons with Diana, Penelope, and others. It seems more 
than merely a conventional compliment, such as Surrey's 
lyric from which Heywood may have derived his opening 
lines. 1 This poem was later included in Tottel's Miscellany, 
1557, under "Poems by Uncertain Authors." The last two 
stanzas are omitted, which state that the poem was written by 
Heywood to Princess Mary when she was 18 years old. 
Perhaps this ending was deliberately omitted, for at the time 

1 Surrey: "Give place, ye lovers, here before 

That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine," etc. 

Heywood: "Give place, ye ladies! all be gone; 
Show not yourselves at all. 
For why? behold! there cometh one," etc. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 125 

of printing the Miscellany, Mary was on the throne, and 
though the poem is completely complimentary, it probably 
was deemed too intimate to have been written to the queen. 
If this view is correct the poem is an evidence of Heywood's 
sincerity, rather than merely a conventional compliment to a 
lady. The full title, given above, is the earlier one, quite 
typical of the "broadside" sort of heading. 2 

The majority of his short poems are contained in a manu- 
script miscellany which is joined to a copy of John Bedford's 
play of Wit and Science. z Nine of these poems are signed 
with Heywood's name. Another poem, "Long have I been a 
singing man," is printed in this collection with Redford's 
name below it, but this is evidently an error. In a different 
manuscript, formerly owned by B. Hey wood Bright, now 
B. M. Ms. Cotton Vespasian A xxv, this poem is written and 
is signed "Finis Mr. Haywood." The strong autobiographical 
element which so well fits Heywood's life clearly shows him 
to be the author. Its theme, we shall see, is one which Hey- 
wood treated often in his writings. 

It is believed that this Redford manuscript was compiled 
about 1545. Eight poems in the miscellany are not signed 
with any name, and possibly some of these belong to Hey- 
wood. The first poem bearing his name is short, only four 
stanzas in length, with the message that the grace of God 

2 Further see Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., v. Ill, p. 179; also Farmer, Proverbs, 
Epigrams, Miscl. Heywood, p. 298. 

A change is noticed in stanza 16 in the two versions: 
early: "How might we do to have a graff 
Of this unspotted tree?" 

Tottel: "How might I do to have a graff," etc. 

The change is more personal, for the anonymity of the subject and the 
author prevents embarrassment because of the indelicacy. 

3 The entire manuscript is published and available: J. O. Halliwell, The 
Moral Play of Wit and Science and Early Poetical Miscellanies, London 
Shakespeare Society, 1848, esp. pp. 62, 77, 79, 80, 86, 104, 106, 111, 114, 118' 



126 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEY WOOD 

is sufficient for all things, and the chorus after each stanza: 

I desyre no number of many thyngs for store, 

But I desyre the grace of God, and I desyre no more. 

Another poem, of six 8-line stanzas, is even more religious, 
urging reformation and better actions with doleful warning. 
It begins: 

Man, for thyne yll lyfe formerly, 
And for thine ill lyfe presently, 
Let penitence penitently 
Declare good liffe consequently. 

It may be suspected by the modern reader that the moral tone 
is superior to the poetical expression. The third poem is also 
of this moral group. It attacks the evil of idleness or sloth. 
Almost all other evils may be turned to some good, but not 
this sin, which is like a bad weed. The six 7-line stanzas are 
accompanied by the couplet refrain : 

What hart can thynk or toong expres 
The harme that groweth of idlenes? 

Another, "A Ballad against Slander and Detraction," is one 
of Heywood's most vigorous poems. It has twenty 6-line 
stanzas (or rather three "fourteeners" broken for emphasis), 
each short and jolty, filled with ire and wrath. The slaying 
of babes and other horrid murder, he exclaims in his fierce 
indignation, are not worse than slander and detraction, lying 
and false tales. A refrain is added: 

Gar call him down, gar call him down, 
God send the faction, of all distraction, 
Called down and cast away ! 

This piece, signed by Heywood, seems too hot for unprovoked 
composition. If we search about for some incident in his 
life which might have called forth this wrathful utterance, 
there is nothing more appropriate and fitting to suggest than 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 127 

his imprisonment in connection with the Cranmer affair, 
against which he may have circulated, as a broadside, this 
indignant outburst. It is vehement to the point of un- 
doubted sincerity. 4 Another poem against malice, more 
restrained in tone and perhaps more conventional and un- 
provoked, is in his favorite 7-line stanza, six in number, with 
the refrain: 

Man, yf thow mynd heven to obtayne, 
Bere no males to no wyghte humayne. 

In this group of moral poems belongs also his "Long have I 
been a singing man," which is in praise of the golden mean, 
but this will be considered later. 

One of the most interesting of his songs is "A Ballad of the 
Green Willow," in which a lover complains of his lady's 
change of heart, ending: 

When feminine fancies for new love do long, 
Old love cannot hold them, new love is so strong; 

and the doleful refrain: 

All a green willow, willow 

All a green willow is my garland. 

While this may not be the first of the list, it is a predecessor 

of the Shakespearian adaptation which Desdemona sings: 

Sing all a green willow must be my garland. 5 

This poem is composed of eight quatrains, with the refrain. 

It is most pleasing poetically, employing alliteration and a 

metrical lilt in happy combination, no doubt, with suitable 

music; it quite sings itself in the lines: 

Now woe worth the willow, and woe worth the wight, 
That windeth willow, willow garland to dight. 

4 In addition to Halliwell, p. 114; see J. Lilly's Ancient Ballads and 
Broadsides, 1867, p. 9; and Farmer, Proverbs, Epigrams, Miscl. Hey wood, 
p. 305. 

6 Othello, Act 4, Sc. 3. Cf. also Gilbert and Sullivan, Mikado, "Titwillow." 



128 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Another love song is joyous in tone, singing of happy love. 
It is possibly an epithalamion to his wife, for perhaps the 
"two wills in one" refers to his own marital experience. 6 The 
last two poems in the manuscript collection are typical ban- 
quet songs, such as might have been sung in his interludes. 
One, composed of fourteen quatrains, tells us to laugh at 
trouble which is never so bad as it seems, with the admonition : 

Be rnerye, frendes, take ye no thowghte, 
For worldlye cares care ye right nowghte. 

And the other, equal to this one in verve and high spirits, 
sings : 

Ye be wellcum, ye be wellcum, 
Ye be wellcum, won by wone, 

through eight stanzas, and from the reference to a dish 
offering in it, this is evidently a song of greeting and hos- 
pitality for a dinner. 

His ballad upon the marriage of Mary and Philip, in 1554, 

6 It is given here in full : 

Yf love for love of long tyme had 

May joyne with joy, and care hens cast, 
Then may remembrans make me glad, 

Dayes weekes and yeares in all tyme past, 
My love hath lovyd me so loovyngly, 
And I wyll love her as trewlye! 

And as we twayne have lovd and doo, 

So be we fyxyd to love evyn styll; 
The lawe of love hath made us too 
To wurk to wylles in wone wyll : 
My love wyll love me so loovyngly, 
And I wyll love her as trewlye. 

Ye lovers all in present place, 

That long for love contynuall, 
I wysh to you lyke pleasant case, 

As ye perseve by me doth fall, 
And yours to love as lovyngly! 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 129 

has already been referred to. It was a poem for personal 
gain, not written surely from poetic inspiration, and not 
one of his best. Through twelve 7-line stanzas he heaps 
praise and adulation equally upon Philip and Mary, and 
with poor prophecy sings of a gentle and glorious rule for 
England. Another political poem can boast of more fire and 
sincere emotion. This "Brief Ballet touching the Traitorous 
Taking of Scarborough Castle" was circulated as a broadside 
printed by Thos. Powell in London. 7 The poem, twelve 
stanzas long, is in praise of the defenders of Scarborough 
Castle, against rebellious insurgents who captured the strong- 
hold by surprise, and who were soon beheaded for their 
achievement. It celebrates the conclusion of a series of 
attempts made by Thomas Stafford, nephew of Cardinal 
Pole, who deserted the Catholic cause and sought to over- 
throw the government, to establish himself upon the throne, 
for he was of royal lineage. This final exploit was made in 
1557, when, equipped with men and ships from France, he 
captured the castle without warning, and posed as the 
savior of the English against Spanish invasion. He was 
hanged, drawn and quartered in May, 1557. 8 The poem 
makes frequent reference to a "Scarborough warning," which 
expression, meaning no warning at all, is thought by some to 
have originated from this event. 9 But Hey wood used the 
expression in his Dialogue of Proverbs against Marriage, 1546, 
and also in his Epigrams which appeared before 1557. The 
same castle, however, was captured by surprise in Wyatt's 
rebellion, 1553-4. This expression, it seems, goes back of 
this event, for it was used by Mountain at the capture of 
Cambridge Castle in 1544. There was also an old custom 
which might have given rise to the expression; for Scar- 

7 Farmer, Proverbs, Epigrams, Miscl. Heywood, p. 311. 

8 See D. N. B., under "Stafford." 

9 Farmer, Proverbs, Epigrams, Miscl. Heywood, p. 433, following Fuller 
Worthies. 



130 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

borough Castle fired without warning upon any vessel not 
striking sail which passed the promontory on which it was 
situated. 10 Heywood himself, either with more or less infor- 
mation, agrees with none of these suggestions, for he says 
in the poem: 

This term, Scarborough warning grew (some say), 

By hasty hanging, for rank robbery there. 
Who that was met but suspect in that way, 
Straight was he trussed up, whatever he wear. 

As for the poem "Long have I been a singing man," we see 
in this a repetition of a theme which Heywood used many 
times. It is in praise of the mean that he sings; neither to 
sing too high nor too low, too loud nor too soft. In Tottel's 
Miscellany, under "Poems by Uncertain Authors" in which 
Heywood's verses to Princess Mary are found, there is also 
a song entitled "The meane estate is best," which possibly 
comes from Heywood's pen, especially as we notice the same 
idea in Epigrams upon Proverbs, number 128, on Measure — 
"Measure is a merry mean," with ten variations of the epi- 
gram. And in the Spider and Fly we read the same senti- 
ment, when the Spider gives paternal advice to his son 
(cap. 92) : 

And of the two extreme parts (as I take it) 
The base is better than the treble to sing. 

also: 

The meane is the merry part, being sung right. u 

Heywood's fame rested chiefly upon his epigrams and 
proverbs, which we can now consider. The earliest of these 
works is his "Dialogue conteynyng the number of the effec- 
tuall prouerbes in the Englishe tounge, compact in a matter 
concernynge two maner of maryages," printed by T. Berthelet 
in 1546. This was reprinted in 1547, 1549, 1556, and 1561, 

10 Lean's Collecteana, v. I, p. 226, from Strype, Memorials of Queen Mary. 

11 Farmer, Spider and Fly, p. 398. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 131 

and then was included in the combined edition of his works 
in 1562, and again in 1566, 1576, 1587, and 1598. The great 
popularity of the piece is seen in these ten editions which 
appeared before the end of the century. 12 

This Dialogue, about 3000 lines long, is divided into two 
parts, each part into short units which he calls chapters, of 
which the first has thirteen, the second eleven. A short pre- 
face precedes, in which Heywood expresses a veneration and 
regard for the old, plain, pithy proverbs of his mother-tongue. 
They teach good lessons, but he will write, not to teach but 
to touch, and will employ them all in a dialogue between two 
friends regarding marriage. He treats himself as one of the 
friends, and tells of a young man who comes to him with a 
problem. He knows two women, one an old widow who is 
wealthy, the other a beautiful maiden who is poor. He needs 
money, but loves the poor maiden; which should he marry? 
Evidently the young man came to the right person for advice, 
for the other proceeds to debate the matter throughout the 
remainder of the piece. To point his argument, the older 
friend uses as examples the case of a young man who married 
an old woman, wealthy and doting, and of another who 
married a charming girl without dower, and tells of the great 
disaster which both men suffered. Through the piece, per- 
haps averaging one to every couplet, is strewn a wealth of 
proverbs and folk adages. In the final chapter the young 
man is quite overcome by the fate of the two others who were 
victims of unhappy marriages, and dreading the same in his 
case, renounces his intention and falls into conventional wit- 
ticisms against marriage, holding that "In neither barrel 
better herring," and "No lack to lack a wife," and hence he 
will not marry at all. 

It would be difficult to decide for which of two reasons this 
work enjoyed such great popularity. The theme and the 

12 Parks in Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 376; Farmer, Proverbs, 
Epigrams, Miscl. Heywood, p. 329; Sharinan, Proverbs, p. xlviii. 



132 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

manner both are interesting, and the combination is most 
happy. Collections of proverbs neatly applied, became in- 
creasingly popular when folk sayings came to be the fashion 
later in the century. 13 Here also, we have an excellent presen- 
tation of the medieval disputation adapted to the mood of 
the day, very similar to the method used in his debats, and 
upon one of the most approved questions d'amour. In this 
case, however, it is interesting to see how the question is 
turned about, with some loss of chivalry, for usually the lady 
had to decide between an old wealthy lover, or a handsome 
poor one. Moreover, there was perhaps just as much of a 
real problem behind all this in Heywood's day as there 
seems to be in the present century. 

Heywood has given us here the first collection of folk 
proverbs in the English tongue. It was, we recall from the 
incident of presenting a copy to William Paulett, Marquis of 
Winchester, an attempt to include "all the proverbes in 
Englishe." Before Heywood, Alexander Barclay used some 
proverbs in their earlier form, introduced into his Eclogues 
and Ship of Fools. 14 Heywood, furthermore, was careful in 

13 Sharman, Proverbs, p. xiv, says: "There is little doubt that, after the 
appearance of Heywood's book in 1546, a new idea or influence was set 
working in English literature. . . . The author was by means of this work re- 
minding the public of a property which the owners were inadvertently losing. 
That same meaning which the romancers before him had attempted to 
explain with an allegory, Heywood could promptly convey in a proverb. 
The romancers were rejected; Heywood's volume was hailed with acclaim. 
It became the most popular of all popular books. Ten times it was sent to 
press in the sixteenth century. Immediately on its appearance it gave a 
fillip to the nation's appetite for literary enjoyment; poets, play-writers, 
and statesmen made capital of its mine of proverbs. The Elizabethan 
dramatists are brimming with them. One orator delivered a speech in the 
House of Commons in which a proverb formed the substance of every 
sentence. Proverbs were adopted everywhere as devices for tapestry, as 
mottoes for knives, as inscriptions for rings and keepsakes." (Cf. the same 
thing in Spain; as in Don Quixote, Sancho Panza.) 

14 Jamieson, ed Ship of Fools, v. I, p. li. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 133 

this work to limit himself almost exclusively to proverbs 
proper, while others before him have given us maxims. 15 

A natural connecting link between the Dialogue of Proverbs 
concerning Marriage and the Epigrams is found in Hey wood's 
"Three Hundred Epigrammes, upon three hundred pro- 
uerbes," which were printed with the other works in 1562. 
The Epigrams on Proverbs were published separately before 
this, however, for in Bale's account of Heywood (c. 1556) he 
mentions "Epigrammata Pro verbiala . . . lib. 1," as though 
printed in one separate book, listed apart from the Epigrams. 
Some have thought that these Epigrams upon Proverbs were 
published before 1553, when Wilson refers in his Rhetorique 
to Hey wood's proverbs; but this was probably the Dialogue 
of Proverbs concerning Marriage. 16 After this work appeared 
with others in 1562, it was included in the subsequent edi- 
tions, 1566, 1576, 17 1587, and 1598. 

In these Epigrams upon Proverbs Heywood's custom is to 
cite some familiar proverb, and then by his own addition 
either to complete the meaning by carrying it further to some 
instance of life under his observation, or to disprove the 
proverb by some humorously incorrect application of it. 
He holds to no meter consistently, but usually adapts himself 
to that of the proverb when possible, although he frequently 
changes the proverb to suit his purpose or pun. He often 
adds a line to the proverb and makes the combination a 
couplet, frequently it becomes a quatrain, and occasionally 
extends even beyond a dozen lines. 

Not one of the three hundred, it may be said, is dull 
reading, but we are wrong if we accept the title completely. 
For they are not always either proverbs or epigrams. Fre- 
quently he merely dresses up witty sayings and calls them 
proverbs, and then adds a few words of his own, and calls 

15 W. C. Hazlitt, Eng. Proverbs, p. ix. 

16 Park in Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 373; see also page 75. 

17 Dated 1577 in the colophon. 



134 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

them epigrams. 18 But this work is naturally a companion 
piece to the Dialogue of Proverbs concerning Marriage; it is 
another evidence of how wide-spread was the vogue which 
he began. The epigram was becoming as popular as the prov- 
erb, and the combination of the two was most felicitous. If we 
reverence Heywood as a pioneer in English drama, he 
deserves praise for his work in this field also. He does not 
altogether merit the blame for crudity which some give him; 
those worthies who wrote in his vein later in the century 
were able to scoff mildly because he was dead and gone, but 
even so he was "old Heywood," in a sense of esteem with the 
next generation of Elizabethan wits and epigrammatists. 19 
After writing this combination, the next step for Heywood 
to take was into the epigram proper. There are three "cen- 
turies" of Epigrams in his works. Bale, in his account, has 
listed the First Hundred and Second Hundred Epigrams, show- 
ing that these were either in print or were known by Bale in 
manuscript about 1556. In the 1562 edition of the works of 
Heywood a third hundred is added, which makes the sixth 
hundred if the 300 Epigrams on Proverbs are included — as was 
done by the publisher. This shows that the first two hundred 
Epigrams were printed before 1562, for the title to the last 
"century" of Epigrams reads, "Whereunto are now newly 
added a syxt hundred of Epigrams by the sayd John Hey- 
wood." 20 Many of his Epigrams were printed separately on 
flyleaves or broadsides. The antiquarian Dibdin states he 
possessed two, printed on a long slip of paper, on one side 

18 W. C. Hazlitt, Eng. Proverbs, p. xv. 

19 Lyly in his Euphues used Heywood's Proverbs very frequently, both 
by direct quotation and by adaptation. Cf. Ed. Morris W. Croll & Harry 
Clemons, Lond. 1916. Unfortunately this edition refers to John Heywood 
constantly as Thomas Heywood. 

20 In the 1562 edition, the 300 Epigrams on Proverbs are placed after the 
first hundred Epigrams and before the second hundred, but in the 1598 
edition, the Epigrams on Proverbs precede, and after them follow the three 
"centuries" of Epigrams in proper order. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 135 

only, and bearing the imprint, "Printed at London by Row- 
land Hall for James Rowbotham, and are to be sold at his 
shoppe under Bow Churche." 21 

These Epigrams are occasionally abbreviated narratives, a 
curious body of mixed material involving animal fables, 
merry jests and any other jeu-a" esprit he wished to include, 
provided it was short and pithy enough to suit his conception 
of what made up an epigram. Anthony aWood has stated, 
"It has even been said that sir Thomas More assisted Hey- 
wood in the composition of his epigrams." 22 But this is too 
vague to be valuable, although Hey wood probably had heard 
many witty thrusts from More which were later worked up 
and utilized by him. It does not seem likely that Heywood 
was seriously at work upon his Epigrams before 1535, when 
More was alive, although materials for them would be 
prized by one in his position at court, where wit made 
success. At least one "epigram," however, comes from the 
More circle. Ellis Heywood, in his II Mow, tells of a guest 
at More's home who had a very long nose, which brought 
forth an ejaculation concerning it from a member of the 
household, in the gentleman's hearing. More gave a glance 
of rebuke, whereupon the confused man said that the guest 
had a really handsome nose, in fact hardly any nose at all. 
Another rebuke followed, and then came the assertion that 
the gentleman had no nose whatsoever! This incident is 
also told in Cresacre More's Life of Sir Thomas More, and in 
Erasmus' Apothegms. Heywood has given this family joke 

21 Farmer, Proverbs, Epigrams, Miscl. Heywood, p. 329. It also might be 
shown that the first hundred Epigrams were published separately in book 
form, from Epigram No. 1 : 

This book may seem, as it sorteth truth, 
A thin trim trencher to serve folk at fruit. 

But carver or reader can no way win 

To eat fruit thereon, or compt fruit therein. 

22 A. aWood, Athenae Oxon., ed. 1721, vol. I, p. 348. 






136 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEY WOOD 

in his "epigram" called "Of the Fool and the Gentleman's 
Nose." 23 

Howsoever these witty verses may fail as pointed epigrams, 
they are good evidence of the nimble and sprightly humor 
which won a place for Hey wood at court. In them he com- 
bines skilfully the vigor and lightness of touch which is 
characteristic of true comic genius, without pedantry, know- 
ing that a sharp word or a laugh of light satire will effect 
as much as heavy denunciation and dull moralizing. This 
same rare combination we have seen him effect in his dra- 
matic works. 24 

Heywood's greatest work we now consider last. The long 
poem entitled "A Parable of the Spider and the Flie," was 
printed "At London in Flete Strete by Tho. Powell," in 1556. 
It is composed of about 7600 verses, in the Chaucerian 7-line 
stanza, made into 98 chapters, with a lengthy Preface and a 
Conclusion. It is decorated with many elaborate wood-cuts 
showing the author at his table observing the progress of the 
story as it is enacted in the spider-web on the window-pane 
before him. The cuts show the details of the developments 
occurring in each chapter. In addition to an elaborate title 
page there is also a frontispiece, a full-length portrait of 
John Heywood, which is again printed further in the book. 
This is a copy of the portrait which we have noticed in the 
first edition of Gentleness and Nobility. The book is printed 

23 First Hundred Epigrams, No. 86. See also Censura Literaria, v. IX, 
pp. 118, 122. 

24 A. W. Ward, ed Spider and Flie, Spenser Soc., pp. iii, iv. 

The theme of Witty and Witless was long in Heywood's mind; cf. 1st 
hundred, Epigram No. 16, "A Fool and a Wise Man"; No. 87, "A Fool taken 
for Wise"; also 5th hundred, Epigram No. 79, "Of Difference between Wise 
Men and Fools"; No. 81, "Of Choice to be a Wise Man or a Fool." 

In addition to the many editions which Heywood's Epigrams enjoyed, 
we have evidence of their popularity in the fact that the Bannatyne Ms. 
contains nine of these epigrams, all bearing Heywood's name (pp. 450-2, 
456-7, 1079). 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 137 

with evident care and art; it was the masterpiece of an 
important gentleman of the court. 

But the masterpiece was a failure. Praise of this work is 
difficult to find even among his contemporaries. It was not 
popular; its length and intricate allegory did not entice 
many readers. Harrison, in his "Description of Britaine" pre- 
fixed to Holinshed's Chronicle, refers to it: "One hath made a 
booke of the Spider and the Flie, wherein he dealeth so pro- 
foundlie, and beyond all measure of skill, that neither he 
himself that made it, neither anie one that readeth it, can 
reach unto the meaning thereof." 25 Warton has called the 
battle between the spiders and flies, an episode in the poem, 
an awkward imitation of the Homeric Batrachomuomachy — 
which would have surprised Heywood greatly. Ellis says it 
is "utterly contemptible" and tiring; Sharman boasts of 
never having read it, and of knowing only one man who has. 26 

Most of the condemnations of this work, however, are 
made by those who have not read it. The poem has risen in 
esteem more recently. Two reprints have been made, and 
it has become for us a very important social study of the six- 
teenth century. 27 A careful reading of it is sure to take the 
student beyond the confines of religious allegory. Catholics 
and Protestants are put into the poem, but chiefly as members 
of a class struggle. It is true that long works of a by-gone 
age are not most inviting forms of light reading, but its length 
is no great fault. As Ward points out, ignorance of its con- 
tents has condemned it; but to a student of the period, this 
work will approach even light and amusing reading, to say 

25 Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, v. Ill, p. 379, from Holinshed, Chronicle, 
p. 229. 

26 Geo. Ellis, Specimens, v. II, p. 16; Sharman, Proverbs Heywood, p. 
xlvii. 

27 Especially in the researches of Dr. Jakob Haber, Heywood" s Spider and 
Fly. An extended criticism and appreciation of this poem is found in the 
introduction of A. W. Ward's edition, Spenser Soc. 1894, to which I refer 
the reader. 



138 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

nothing of its great value as a historical and social document. 

In the Preface, Heywood exhorts his reader to peruse a 
short parable on the reading of parables; of three women, 
dressing before one mirror, each seeking to look better than 
the other two. Each one looked so much at the others that 
she neglected herself and was dressed awry. Two laughed 
at the third, but when each woman looked in the glass at 
herself alone, she saw her carelessness and mended her fault. 
So also if book readers will look at themselves alone in this 
book, it will not be in vain. The Preface is cleverly written; 
Heywood is observed putting his best foot forward, employ- 
ing all the arts of his day, puns, plays upon words, long and 
intricate sentences, and a characteristic sprightliness of wit, 
seeking to attract his readers by devices which now might 
frighten them away. 

Then he turns straight to his story. The author sits by 
a window to read, but is diverted by a Fly who falls into a 
Spider's web. The Fly laments his case, and delivers a 
monologue upon the fickleness and deceit of Fortune, urging 
others to believe Fortune only when she frowns and to dis- 
trust her smile. The Spider is filled with terror when he 
feels his web rudely shaken, and Heywood dwells upon his 
fright with delightful humor. The Spider has been sleeping 
comfortably with his wife and two children, and when he 
descends and beholds the poor Fly, he is angry with himself 
for being frightened. He will kill the Fly, but first returns 
to his family to reassure them. The Spider's children beg a 
juicy piece of the Fly's brain. The Fly plans meanwhile to 
use all his wit against the Spider, and upon his reappearance, 
begs for a fair trial and a hearing. Finally the Spider agrees 
to try him according to reason, law, custom, and conscience. 

Before beginning to plead, the Fly asks pardon in advance 
for any harshness of speech his vehemence might cause. 
This granted, the trial begins. The Fly maintains there are 
no witnesses to show that he harmed the Spider, and asks 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 139 

release on bail. The Spider holds that his presence there and 
the damage done are sufficient witness and denies bail. He 
charges the Fly with burglary, but the Fly shows it was 
daylight when he entered the web, and the point is lost. 
The Spider then accuses felony, but the Fly maintains he 
did not enter the web wilfully, and is not there to steal. This 
the Spider admits, but roughly challenges the Fly to show 
how he will get out of the net, and asks how a Fly knows law 
so well. He is told that he learned it at Westminster Hall, 
where no Spiders with their webs are allowed. The Spider 
now demands argument and proof that the Fly came into 
the web unwillingly. 

After much argument and debate which leads nowhere, the 
Spider changes his charge, and holds the Fly for trespass 
and damage to property, to which the other answers that the 
web was built in a public highway, and liable to damage. 
The Spider then asks the Fly's name, which is Buzz, and 
deems him a great leader, for other flies talk of no one but 
Buzz, and suspects that his prisoner is the instigator of all 
the damage done by other flies. Of course the Fly denies 
this, and returns to his plea that windows are highways, 
open by authority of custom and unwritten law. The Spider 
denies in turn that this custom is universal, and at this the 
Fly proposes that the case be taken elsewhere for appeal, but 
the Spider insists that the trial be held where the offence was 
committed. As tenants of the window must obey the laws of 
the lord thereof, himself, they are not privileged to go to 
higher courts. But the Fly insists he is no tenant, and that 
windows are flies' freehold by common law, and then drifts 
into a long and impassioned speech upon justice, mercy, and 
tyranny, during which the Spider is silent, and the Fly 
thinks he has made a good impression. 

But to his dismay he finds upon concluding that the Spider 
has been sound asleep. He offers to repeat his homily and 
pleading, but the Spider maintains that his health will not 



140 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

permit him to sleep twice in the same day, and surely he 
would fall asleep once more if the Fly should rehearse his 
speech. The Fly begs that other flies be appointed as judges, 
but the Spider rejoins that he is as wise as twelve foolish flies; 
whereupon the relative merits of the species are discussed and 
debated — evidently an allegory for lords versus commons. 

Then, after the manner of the medieval disputation, they 
each agree that impartial judges are needed to decide the 
all-important problem of the freehold of windows. The 
Spider chooses an Ant, the Fly takes a Butterfly for the 
judge-advocates. These are brought together, and each 
contestant has a secret conference with his judge. The Ant 
is sly and crafty, the Butterfly blunt and honest, without 
much shrewdness. They call in witnesses, other spiders and 
flies, who are heard separately upon the question of freehold. 
This part of the trial is given with great detail, and the whole 
matter conducted with extreme formality. The judges finally 
rule that the decision rests upon the honesty of both parties, 
at which, a spider and a fly, both hot-tempered, argue and 
taunt each other concerning the relative honesty of spiders 
and flies. Each is offended, and the debate is broken up by 
both departing in high dudgeon. During all this matter, the 
captive Fly has been reading his book of devotions, somewhat 
withdrawn from the others. 

The judges then make report to the principals, that each 
side has equal claim and no decision can be made. At this 
moment the spider and the fly who had parted in rage bring 
up huge armies to force a decision by arms. Instantly the 
spiders construct a strong fort about the web, and are 
placed upon the defensive. The flies capture the Ant and 
would hang him, but the leader persuades them to use him as 
an envoy, and sends him to the spiders' fort, telling them to 
surrender or the Ant will be killed. The spiders are terror- 
stricken by the Ant's picture of the ferocity of the flies, but 
their leader rallies them, and they refuse to surrender. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 141 

The flies imprison the Ant, and begin the attack. After 
a short but fierce battle, 500 spiders and 5000 flies are killed, 
and the contestants retire for rest. Then the Spider's wife 
and two children beg him to make peace for their safety, 
and a council is held. The flies likewise hold deliberations; 
each side is in fear of the other, and all yearn for peace. The 
Ant again is sent to parley, and wins honorable terms from 
the chief Spider, the flies being allowed freedom of limited 
parts of windows. The terms are accepted, peace is declared, 
both armies disband and return home. 

The captain of the flies is disgruntled, and tells a few fol- 
lowers that he will never again risk his neck for such small 
gain. The Ant, returning to his family, blames himself for 
seeking glory out of his place, and realizes he should never 
have meddled with spiders. The chief Spider now returns to 
the captive Fly and his trial. In order to make the pleading 
more effective, and to help towards a just settlement, the 
two change places, and the Spider pleads before the Fly who 
sits as judge. But the Fly, puffed with pride, gives away his 
side of the case by over-reaching himself. He then confesses 
he has been blinded by pride, and they change back again 
to their original status. Reason and law not helping to any 
conclusion, they agree to try the matter by conscience and 
custom. After long dispute, the Spider rules out conscience, 
and finally condemns the Fly to death by custom. The Fly 
calls in twelve friends and to them gives his last words and 
warning, then submits himself to his fate. 

Just as the Spider is about to kill the Fly, the Maid of the 
house comes in and with her broom sweeps down the cobweb, 
and the Fly escapes through the window. When she is 
about to kill the Spider, he asks a hearing and trial, but she 
refuses, saying that she knows all that has gone on before, 
and condemns the Spider to death on the same grounds as 
those on which he had sentenced the Fly. The Spider is 
permitted to speak to his twelve councillors and his son, 



142 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

all his discourse being strongly didactic; then he embraces 
his son and is crushed by the Maid. 

The Maid then calls the twelve spiders and twelve flies 
before her, and informs them that both have offended her 
master and mistress, the spiders encroaching too much on the 
windows, and the flies venturing too boldly on the meat. 
The spiders are commanded to remain in their rightful place 
at the tops of the windows, out of reach, and the flies more 
temperately to use the windows. They thank her for her 
justice and depart, while she cleans the window well. The 
author, beholding this, is satisfied, and leaves for dinner. 

Then follows "The Conclusion with an exposition of the 
Author touching one piece of the latter part of this parable." 
In it we are told the window represents the plot of the world, 
and the spiders and flies are the striving factions and parties 
therein, while the Maid is Queen Mary who labors diligently 
and faithfully, with mildness and mercy, to clear away dis- 
orders from her window, killing only one spider, as we have 
seen, and that more in sorrow than in anger. This execution 
was necessary for example. The Maid's master is Christ, 
"the head master principal," and her mistress is "Mother holy 
Church Catholical." The author ends with a prayer for 
the Maid and "our sovereign lord Philip, to her brought by 
God, as God brought her to us." 

The most valuable hint given us, in striving to find out 
what all this means, is in the opening lines of the Conclusion: 

I have, good readers, this parable here penned, 

After old beginning newly brought to end. 

The thing, years more than twenty since it begun, 

To the thing years more than nineteen, nothing done. 

The fruit was green, I durst not gather it then, 

For fear rotting before ripening began. 

The loss (it on the fruiterer's hand lying) 

Had (in that mystery) marred his occupying. 

This work (among my poor works) thus hath it passed, 

Begun with the first, and ended with the last. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 143 

If all this is not a blind to protect Heywood from touching 
too familiarly upon the divided sympathies of Mary's policy, 
we may suppose the poem to have been conceived and begun 
some twenty years before 1556. 

What were the events, then, about the years 1534-1536, 
which might have suggested this work to Heywood? The 
Act of Supremacy, Nov. 3, 1534, hurt Heywood and his 
Catholic friends. The persecution of Catholics in 1535 was 
still more alarming. The execution of. Sir Thomas More, 
on July 6, 1535, must have been one of the most impressive 
incidents of his life, and in the early outlines of his poem 
this event was probably contemplated. In September, 1536, 
the "Pilgrimage of Grace" was made, a religious uprising, a 
protest by the masses who took into their own hands all 
redress for their wrongs. The demands of the leaders were 
that religious houses should be restored, the subsidy should 
be remitted, the clergy should pay no more tenths and first- 
fruits to the crown, the Statute of Uses should be repealed, 
villain blood should be removed from the Privy Council, and 
that the heretic bishops should be deprived of office and 
punished — and we may suspect that Cranmer was thought 
of in this connection. 

Possibly in the early scheme of the poem the witty Fly, a 
leader and a famous brother to his fellows, was to have been 
Sir Thomas More, caught in the web of Henry VIII and the 
plottings of his queen. The web was wrongfully placed in 
a free area; if the web were in its rightful place the Fly 
would not have been caught. 28 So if Henry had not defied the 
Church and worked unlawfully with Anne Boleyn, More 
would not have been caught. The flies collected a large army 

28 It may be that Heywood had More in mind throughout Cap. 2, when 
the Fly, caught in the web of the Spider, laments his change in fortune. The 
Fly was a leader of others and was esteemed by all. He was honored and 
respected and won his position "by mine experience and mother wit." When 
he was present, no other fly would sit, and "my worthy wit did worship win." 



144 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

to fight against unlawful deeds, as Robert Aske, the leader of 
the "Pilgrimage," gathered about him some 30,000 Catholics. 
In any case, these were not propitious years for Heywood to 
publish. He was compelled to remain quiet, and even 
profess to be a good Protestant. "The fruit was green, I 
durst not gather it then." The situation was not improved 
after the death of Henry, in 1547, and during the reign of 
Edward. The reaction came in 1553, under the rule of Mary. 
Roman Catholicism was restored; in February, 1554, John 
Wyatt and his rebels were executed, and the "mild Maid" 
had begun to set her kingdom in order. 

It has been suggested that the spiders' fort was Skipton 
Castle, attacked by the general of the flies, Robert Aske. In 
1549 another rebellion similar to the "Pilgrimage" broke out 
in the south, named, from its leader, "Ket's Rebellion." This 
might have given to Heywood the episode of the Ant who was 
nearly hung by the flies. Robert Ket, a tanner, hung upon the 
"Oak of Reformation" outside Norwich all country gentlemen 
who were brought before him accused of robbing the poor. 
Ket did not give in to hasty hanging, but insisted upon in- 
vestigating each case. On July 31, 1549, the King's herald 
was about to be hung, but upon deliberation, he was, like the 
Ant, released by the commander. 29 

Under the leader of the flies there were motley groups 
of inefficients, which brought forth the remark : 

What a sort of captain cobblers have we here, 
Under our grand captain. (Cap. 56) 

In the disorders of 1549, Nicholas Melton, a shoemaker and 
cobbler, led a band under the general, and D. Mackarll, a 
monk, named himself "Captain Cobbler." 30 Heywood seems 
to refer to these. 

29 A. W. Ward, ed. Spider and Flie, p. x; Froude, Hist, of Eng., Chap. 26. 

30 Haber, Heywood' s Spider and Flie, p. 40; Speed, Hist. Great Britain, 
v. II, p. 772. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 145 

The story of the Spider and Fly is not compact. It does 
not give the impression of complete unity. Spiders and flies 
seem to represent more than Protestants and Catholics, and 
the final episode of the work does not appear to have been 
foreshadowed in previous situations. It evidently was a 
conclusion which suggested itself to him as he was approach- 
ing the end of the poem, coining from events near at hand. 
The greatest spider of all, as Heywood found from extended 
and unhappy experience, was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop 
of Canterbury. By Mary's policy of exemplary repression 
he was burned to death at Oxford, March 21, 1556. It is 
true that the worst of Mary's persecution of Protestants 
came after this date, and so Heywood has some justification 
in calling her a "mild, merciful maiden," — 

And as under that maid spider died but one, 
So under this maid, save one (in effect), none. 

Before the Maid in the poem crushed the Spider, she permit- 
ted him to speak, to warn his kind against falling into his errors 
and to confess his fault and admit that he deserved his fate. 
So Cranmer, before his death, preached to the people, recant- 
ing and confessing his errors, and submitted himself to death 
meekly and penitently. Heywood refers to this incident : 

And as that one under that one maid did die 

Repentant, so this other repentantly, 

Under this other maid, the death meekly took. 31 

31 Ward, ed Spider and Flie, p. ix, suggests that the head Spider is the 
Duke of Northumberland, who was executed in connection with Wyatt's 
rebellion in 1553. But no evidence is shown, and from what we have seen 
of Heywood's connection with Cranmer, there seems to be little doubt that 
Heywood referred to the Archbishop. The date of 1553 does not seem so 
satisfactory, moreover, as the date of Cranmer's death, 1556. 
The Fly, speaking of his great age (Cap. 36), remarks: 
"I was bred in the year of the great frost 
Before the great sweat; when many flies were crossed 
Out of the book of life," etc. 



146 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

The allegory of the poem is not entirely consistent. At 
times we may believe that the flies are the poor persecuted 
Catholics, but they obviously represent more than this. In 
point of virtue it seems that neither side is better than the 
other, though our sympathies fall on the side of the flies. 
The spiders are wealthy aristocrats, landed proprietors, 
noblemen and leaders of the people. They should set a 
good example to the common folk. Just before the Spider's 
death he says to his son's councillors: 

Now to you of his counsel, mark what I devise. 
In you lieth the putting in ure of all this; 
You are his hands, his feet, his ears, and his eyes; 
Hearing, feeling, or seeing, in him small is 
To walk or to work with, you working amiss. 
You are the mirrors that all lookers look in, 
As you work, they work, but you must first begin. 

(Cap. 92) 

Ward suggests that either 1506 or 1517 is referred to, both years suffering 
a visitation of the sweating sickness. Though as a rule these visitations 
were preceded by rainy winters, in January 1506, a great frost occured dur- 
ing which the Thames was frozen over, and a similar frost occured in January 
1517. But even if we knew which year was meant, it would carry us no 
further. 

It might be remarked here that Haber proposes that when the Fly sug- 
gests taking the trial to Westminster, a similar argument was used in the 
"Dialogue between Cardinal Pole and Thomas Lupset," (E. E. T. S. XII, 32). 
Also the attack made (in Cap. 31) upon evil judges and lawyers finds a 
parallel in Barclay's Skip of Fools, and works of protest like Tindale's Obe- 
dience of a Christian Man, a ballad entitled The Image of Ypocresye (c. 1533), 
and the chapter "Of Prolongyng of the Lawe and certen abuses of the same," 
in the Complaynt of Roderyck Mors, pp. 44-8. 

Swoboda also has suggested a general similarity between this poem and 
a long work by Sir William Forest, History of Grisild the Second. Forest 
was chaplain to Catherine of Aragon and a staunch Catholic. He, too, says 
he wrote his poem twenty years earlier, and then wisely published it when 
Mary came to the throne (p. 33). J. Unna, Die Sprache Heywoods, follows 
Brandl, Quellen, p. 49, and differs from all others in believing that Hey wood 
commenced his poem in 1529, laid it aside in 1530, and published it after 
he had resumed work upon it in 1550-1556. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 147 

A pertinent economic problem of the time is touched upon 
in the debate of the representative spider and fly, just before 
they depart from the others to raise armies for the rescue of 
their principals. The question of the landlord spiders who 
raise rents, cancel leases, and persecute tenants has been 
brought up. The fly farmers then increase the price of pro- 
duce, and the cost of living soars. The spokesman for the 
flies continues: 

Wise flies cannot brook it, for they find in book 

This demand written, When Adam dolve and Eve span, 

Who was, in those golden days a gentleman? (Cap. 44) 

We have in this chapter a flavor of the literature of WicliflVs 
time and of the days of the Peasants' Revolt; a rude socialism 
is preached, and we hear talk of the nobility grabbing the 
common land, of feasting lords and starving commons. 
Throughout the poem, we find it takes ten or twelve flies to 
equal one spider in battle, in power, wealth, dignity, and 
worthiness. Times were bad, we hear from the leader of the 
flies. He tells (in Cap. 72) of the wrongs they suffer from the 
spiders, intolerable exactations and break-back burdens, and 
of perpetual shackling which drives them to rebel. 

Where flies with spiders in this kind of strife strive, 
We win nought but wretchedness; the craft will not thrive. 

(Cap. 82) 

To Heywood, a courtier close to the throne, the powerful 
nobles who stood aloof from the Catholic queen were good 
targets. Mary feared the mighty spiders more than the 
common flies, who had not completely gone over to Protes- 
tantism. Her policy must be shrewd, and Heywood points 
the way in a discussion of power and pity (Cap. 70), which 
must join together as man and wife for the common weal, 
the husband to command policy and the wife to obey, but 
with mercy. 



148 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

But as Heywood emerges from the struggle he describes 
between the two warring parties, he attains a view of the 
state which is similar to the Leviathan of Hobbes: 

And did we consider but this present life, 

Yet must we live in an order here (perde !) 

The God hath placed us all to live out of strife, 

Spiders, flies, and ants, each sort in their degree. 

Spiders, in head parts of windows, the heads be; 

Flies in the midst, the body as it were; 

Ants at the low part, the feet, accounted there. (Cap. 79) 

But above all is the king; and he expresses his belief in the 
dogma of divine right when he argues the compulsion of all 
good laws: 

And a king, called in scripture God's anointed, 
Hath (of God) gifts above the rest appointed. 
God promise th to rule the hearts of kings, 
Which gift showeth a king above the rest. (Cap. 27) 

Heywood was not blind to the defects of monarchism, how- 
ever. The Spider suggests, as spiders are more powerful 
than many flies, that a spider may be compared to a king, 
and the flies to a senate. But he is apprehensive, and quickly 
adds: 

We no whit mean those states embased to be 
By our talk, as a king in property to show 
Like a spider, or comparison to grow 
In flies and a senate for property of flies. 

Both agree that a senate can rule as well as a king, and the 
implication is unavoidable that a bad king is more easily 
found than a bad senate. Heywood, at Chelsea and London, 
as a young man, probably heard Sir Thomas More discuss 
statecraft and democracy in terms which he could read for 
himself in the Utopia. Heywood was not a mean courtier, 
abject in his opinions, but held clear ideas upon political 
affairs and social movements which no reader of this poem 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 149 

can ignore. He hits at corruption in laws, ministers, and 
governors with sincere vigor. 

He has no use for neutrals. When the flies vote upon the 
execution of the Ant, two of them withdraw and converse 
for a chapter (No. 63) about non-voters, or "neuters." These 
neuters are like his epigram upon the buckets in a well; they 
stay in the bucket going down only long enough to meet the 
bucket coming up. They never stay with one party until it 
sinks. They "bear the bell away," they are esteemed first, 
and are followers of fashion, they eat the best, "there they 
flicker and flatter, in favor to grow," they go from one host 
to another and their current coin is low curtsey and fair words. 
They are foe-like friends and friend-like foes, like mermaids 
half flesh and half fish. And so he goes on, saying we can 
stand open foes and like the oak be strong in the storm, 
but these "unnatural neuters" we must always avoid, ending: 

Be we spiders, be we flies, whatever we be, 
That we all may (by His grace) cut off clearly 
All unkindness of neuterlike indifferency. 

Over against this attitude of Heywood's we can place his 

love of peace and concord — not inconsistent with his attack 

upon "neuters." Many passages in his poem show his hatred of 

war and strife. It settles nothing permanently, he argues, and : 

War hath done more harm than tale of tongue can hold, 

War hath done no good, and nought can not be told. 

(Cap. 57) 

And when he beholds the factions in battle, he exclaims, 
My heart shaketh at the sight, behold, it is hell ! 

The Ant, also (in Cap. 75), makes a long speech against war, 
which we may believe expresses Heywood's attitude, and he 
himself suggests, instead of 

Sturdily standing with bill in foul fighting, 
the alternative, 

But humbly suing, with bills of fair writing. 



150 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

The object of the poem is to show the way to concord and 
peace between parties: 

To considerate weighing of faults of our own, 
And then (by grace) t'amend, for concord growing, 
As spiders and flies grow to, herein showing. 
But, faults and faulters, erst repented and past, 
Which faults (I hope) none on himself can now cast, 
Figured here in the spider's cruelty, 
Touching deeds and deaths of those that so passed be. 
Let us rather (when memory them to mind calls), 
Lament their false facts than rejoice their foul falls; 
And pray for them, as we hope they pray for us, 
That they and we, by God's merciful discuss, 
May (after strife together in life carnal), 
Live and love together in life eternal. 

Perhaps, from the recital of the historical and moral aspects 
of this poem, the impression is given that it is somewhat 
heavy reading. Such is not the case, for the work is prac- 
tically a mock-epic. The agonies of spiders and flies are not 
depicted with the desire to torture the reader, but rather to 
entertain him. The wit and humor vary from delicate to 
coarse, pages are enlivened with many of the proverbs and 
folk sayings Hey wood collected so enthusiastically, whimsical 
conceits abound, and even the parts which now might seem 
dull to some were in his time perhaps the brightest of the 
book — the long-drawn, fine-spun arguments burlesquing the 
jargon of lawyers and forensic schoolmen. We are enter- 
tained by such an argument as the Spider makes, for instance, 
in maintaining that it was night when the Fly entered his 
web (sustaining the charge of burglary) even though the 
sun was shining, because he was asleep in his bed, and would 
have been so for hours longer had he not been interrupted. 
The Fly's answer is that in such a case, anyone could make it 
midnight by a wink at noon (Cap. 11). When the Spider 
is required to take oath, he lies on his back and tosses his six 






NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 151 

feet aloft, swearing by all three crosses thus made (Cap. 8). 
The Fly, before his capture in the net, is jovially described : 

But for a fly, oh Lord! how he then sang 
Two notes above his highest note before! 
Wherein increased his courage more and more, 
He flew, he frisked, he tossed, he turned about, 
The fly of flies, no fly, I trow, so stout. (Cap. 1) 

A touch of Elizabethan roughness of humor is sensed in the 
telling of how the Fly desired his captor to remove a little 
farther off, his fear inhibiting his pleading: 

I thank you humbly (quoth the fly), but, sir, 

Of a goose with garlic sauced so late I eat, 

That my breath stinketh, and since I may not stir 

From you, for you I think it very meet 

To step from me aloof to air more sweet. (Cap. 6) 

The Spider moves away, and the Fly breathes easier. The 
simple Butterfly, when exalted to the high position of a judge- 
advocate, plays at being learned to impress the others and 
mumbles extraordinary malapropisms, and his sort of Latin, 
"Audum, altum, paltum," — 

This term, set far from the Latin and more such, 
Learned in the school of ignorance, he spake much, 
And understood little. 

Of this character Hey wood also says: 

The butterfly studied not what words to speak, 

But to speak with voice clear, he coughed and he spit, 

Till his voice was much more clear than his wit. (Cap. 36) 

Towards the end of the book, as the allegory grows closer 
and the moral more clear, Heywood, with suitable dignity, 
employs less and less direct humor. The didactic element, 
indeed, and the humorous are seldom found together. 

The author, as if realizing that this work was too lengthy 
for easy reading, arranges to review his matter frequently. 



152 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Each time an important new character is introduced, the 
argument up to that point is repeated. Frequently he avoids 
padding his work with irrelevancies. When two characters 
talk at the same time, the author says he cannot hear both, 
and reports only one conversation (Cap. 30), and if one 
whispers to another (as in Cap. 32) he confesses he cannot 
hear what is said, and the reader is grateful for this humorous 
realism. 

We may suspect that Heywood enjoyed writing a morsel 
of religious satire upon the controversy which raged through- 
out the period of the Reformation over freewill and con- 
science. The case between the Spider and Fly rests upon 
whether the Fly entered the web with or without freewill. 
Will, with and without power, and chance, are discussed and 
argued with a finesse possible now only with theological 
logicians (Cap. 15). 32 The old dispute between faith and 
works crops up (in Cap. 30) when the Fly pleads for a trial 
by conscience. The Spider turns on him sharply and scolds 
with pent-up irritation for his eternal harping upon con- 
science, which the Fly elaborately defends. 

The debat and disputation, which Heywood adapted in so 
many of his works, are used here also. In fact, the entire 
piece is almost a debate. Like a medieval schoolman, Hey- 
wood divides his argument into a mosaic of sub-heads and 
prosecutes each to the limit. Perhaps only a legal mind today 
would fully enjoy the hair-splitting defense of the Fly. 33 

32 Readers of Chaucer will recall an argument in Troilus and Creseide, 
Bk. IV, on the same subject; Ward, ed. Spider & Flie, p. xv. 

33 The favorite theme of Witty and Witless is referred to in this poem : 

"So might I haply be happy (quoth he) 
But I could not be both happy and wise. 
This proverb proveth this a fool's decree." (Cap. 22). 

It might be that the use of "When Adam delved and Eve span," etc., 
in this poem (Cap. 44) and in Gentleness and Nobility points also to Heywood 
as the author of the latter. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 153 

The beginning of the poem reminds us of Chaucer's 
Prologue: 

In season what time every growing thing, 
That ripeth by root, hath lively taken heart, 
Grass, leaf, and flower, in field so flourishing, etc. 

And so he enters into a bit of nature description which has 
the virtue of being good poetry and seemingly sincere. 
Many of the devices he employs fortunately have gone out 
of style; in addition to various forms of punning, he fre- 
quently plays upon a word and carries it through many parts 
of speech, as in the line, 

Which to your behoof behovingly behove. 

It would be difficult to point out passages in this poem which 
are notable for high poetic expression because, perhaps, this 
sort of work does not seek too aesthetic a manner, but one 
passage may be quoted to show Heywood writing in a Spen- 
serian vein — except the closing lines ! 

But as the firmament most clear and blue, 

The golden sunbeams bent to beautify, 

The curtain drawn of cloudy weeping hue 

Withdraweth, and changeth that crystal azure sky 

From blue to black, so fareth it with the fly; 

Amid whose joy, at window to have passed, 

A cobweb masketh his wings and maketh him fast. 

(Cap. 1) 

Heywood expresses in his own way, also, the dolorous senti- 
ment of Dante: 

Alas! my joyful joy of yesterday, 

How can it cure my careful care present? 

Of pleasure past, remembrance doth alway 

The pinch of present pain right much augment; 

Then in this present case this consequent, 

Concludeth (I say) all pleasure past to be 

Nought else but vanished vain vanity. (Cap. 2) 34 

34 Reference to studies of Heywood's poetics will be found on page 155. 



154 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

This completes our discussion of all the works written by 
and attributed to John Hey wood. It is amusing to read of 
another work of his, termed Monumenta Literaria by Lang- 
baine. 35 Referring to Fuller, we find nothing further than 
this citation to help us. But the mystery is cleared away 
upon reading the account of Heywood given by Pitseus, 
whence it is plain Fuller derived the material he so com- 
pletely misunderstood. Pitseus says, "Non pauca tradidit 
posteris litteraria monimenta, non tarn labore," etc., and we 
are relieved to find that we have already studied Heywood's 
Monumenta Literaria. 36 

Occasionally we may find expressed in scholarly discus- 
sions of this period the opinion that Heywood was a royal 
jester, a king's fool. Sharman believed this, and Chambers 
has suggested some faith in the opinion. There is, of course, 
nothing to show that Heywood was a court jester. He was 
proud of his wit, boasted of it in the epigram upon himself, 
and enjoyed the popularity it brought him at court. But we 
have seen that the professional jester, Will Somer, Henry's 
fool, was Heywood's most outspoken hatred, and all his 
attack is based on the fact that Somer's profession was 
that of "sot." If Heywood's position were anything even 
faintly resembling Somer's, he would not thus have given 
opportunity to his enemies to thrust him with the same 
point. The manorial grant of Bolmer was made to him 
as "Gentleman." He is also termed "Gentleman" in the Fox 
manuscript list of those who were "fugitives over the sea." 37 
Furthermore, if his position as singer, player on the virginals, 
and steward of the chamber were not sufficient specification 
of his precise court duties, there would most probably have 

36 "Dr. Fuller mentions a Book writ by our Author, intituled Monumenta 
Literaria, which are said to be Non tarn labore condita, quam lepore condita." 
Acct. of Eng. Dram. Poets, p. 253. 

36 See Appendix, page 168. 

37 Strype, A7inals of Reformation, v. II, part 2, p. 597. 



NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 155 

been some more definite title or designation applied to him 
to show that he was a professional jester at court. 

Heywood has attained some fame, perhaps not according 
to his merits. A philological dissertation has been written 
on his Spider and Fly. ss Swoboda also has made an elaborate 
study, philological and metrical, of Heywood's versification, 
showing his employment of elision, aphaeresis, apocope, 
syncope, syncrisis, synizesis, protraction and alliteration; 
with the result of showing that Heywood was not original 
in any of his verse-forms, meter, or poetic line devices, 
and also that he took great liberties with meter and 
accent. 39 

It would not be just perhaps to say that Heywood was a 
great man, but we have seen at least that he did good service 
for English drama, that he was an epigrammatist and a poet 
of repute, that he lived a long life in high places in times 
when beheading and burning placed longevity among rare 
things, that he contributed to the culture of his glorious 
century, and has helped us to know it. His name may not 
seem so illustrious when compared with others of his order, 
but his rightful place is due him among court poets and 

38 Joseph Unna, Die Sprache John Hey woods in seinem Gedichte, The 
Spider and the File; the results of which are here given, in case the reader 
does not wish to refer to the work itself: 

1. Heywood's rime is absolutely pure. 

2. Differences between the rime and its writing are chiefly to note that 
(a) e, eo-\-r rimes always with a certain a sound, only seldom written e. 
{b) giefan rimes with i, and in the middle of a line is frequently written 

geue. 
(c) eage rinses with i, and appears in writing as iye and eie. 

3. The two r-modifications which orthographists first noticed in the 18th 
cent, are already observed by Heywood. 

4. The palatization of words like condition, discretion, etc., in modern 
English fashion is already accomplished. 

39 Swoboda, Heywood als Dramatiker, p. 83 and ff. For observations on 
Heywood's rime and rhythm, esp. plays, see Bond, Plays from Italian, pp. 
lxxxii-iv. 



156 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

dramatists such as Edwards, Peele, Lyly, Jonson, and 
Dryden. Court poetry and drama passed through momen- 
tous changes from the first to the last of these, and perhaps 
we may sometimes see that the glory of final achievement 
extends back, however faintly, to the initial effort. 



APPENDICES 



158 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEY WOOD 
APPENDIX NO. 1 



GENEALOGICAL TABLE 



^ 



eg 


i — i 


-a 


a 




U 




(^ 




u 




a 


a 


W 

4J 


JS 


(-4 



H 



o x u 



-— *H 



w 



w 



03 

O 



o 



O 



pq 



U 



W 



pq 



fc 

a 

8 



u 





. ro 


tl 




i-s 




B'O 


£ 


Ja o 




o o 




£ 




3 !* 




— a W 




w a 





a o 

■H =4-1 

g § 



— -§ *Q 



-=» £ 



3 ^ 



w 






APPENDICES 159 

APPENDIX NO. 2 

British Museum, Additional Manuscript No. 24844, ff. 38v, 39. 
Haydon Manor. 

Rex omnibus ad quos etc. salutem. Sciatis quod nos de gracia 
nostra speciali ac in consideracione veri et fidelis servicii quod 
dilectus et fidelis serviens noster Johannes Heywood nobis ante hac 
tempora impendit et durante vita sua impendere intendit dedimus 
et concessimus ac per presentes damus et concedimus pro nobis et 
heredibus nostris quantum in nobis est prefato Johanni manerium 
nostrum de Haydon cum pertinenciis in comitatu nostro Essexie 
necnon omnia terras et tenementa redditus reversiones et servicia 
ac omnia alia possessiones hereditamenta quecumque eidem manerio 
quoquomodo pertinentia sive spectantia non excedentia annuum 
valorem septem marcarum. Quod quidem manerium ac cetera 
premissa cum pertinenciis nuper fuerunt Edwardi nuper ducis 
Buckinghamie qui de alta prodicione attinctus fuit et que ratione 
attincture eiusdem nuper ducis ad manus nostris denenerunt 
habendum et tenendum predictum manerium ac cetera premissa 
cum pertinenciis prefato Johanni et heredibus masculis de corpore 
ejusdem Johannis legittime procreatis. Tenendum de nobis et 
heredibus nostris per duodecimam partem feodi militis. Et insuper 
de uberiora gratia nostra per presentes damus et concedimus prefato 
Johanni omnia et omnimoda exitus revenciones redditus et proficua 
predicti manerii et ceterorum premissorum cum suis pertinenciis a 
festo Sancti Michaelis Archangeli anno regninostri terciodecimo 
hucusque provenientia sive crescencia habendum et percipiendum 
eadem exitus revenciones redditus et proficua eidem Johanni tarn 
per manus suas proprias quam per manus nuper et nunc vicecomitis 
et escaetoris nostrorum in comitatu predicto receptorum ballivorum 
firmariorum tenentium et occupatorum manerii predicti ac cetero- 
rum premissorum cum suis pertinenciis ad usum proprium ipsius 
Johanni absque compoto seu aliquo alio pro premissis vel aliquo 
premissorum nobis aut heredibus nostris seu successoribus nostris 
reddendo (seu) solvendo. Eo quod expressa mencio etc. 



160 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 
APPENDIX NO. 3 

John Foxe, Acts and Monuments: 3 vols. London, 1684, v. II, p. 479. 

John In this year, touching matters of History, we read no 

Athee great thing worthy of Memory, but onely of two Persons 

recanted John Athee, and John Hey wood. 



anno 

1545 
The re- 
cantation 
of John 
Heywood 



The same year also followed the Recantation of John 
Heywood; who although he was tached for Treason, for 
denying the Kings Supremacy, yet using the clemency of 
the King, upon his better reformation and amendment, 
made an open and Solemn Recantation in the face of all 
the people, abandoning and renouncing the Popes 
usurped supremacy, and confessing to the King to be 
Chief Supream Head and Govenour of this Church of 
England, all forein Authority and Jurisdiction being 
excluded. The tenour and effect of whose Recantation 
here followeth. 



THE RECANTATION OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Anno I am come hither at this time (good people) willing and 

1545 of mine own desirous sute, to shew, and declare unto 
you brief ely; First of all the great and inestimable 
clemency and mercifulness of our most soveraign and 
redoubted Prince the Kings Majesty, the which his 
highness hath most graciously used towards me a wretch, 
most justly and worthily condemned to dye for my mani- 
fold and outragious offences, haynously and traiterously 
committed against his Majesty and his Laws. For 
whereas his Majesties Supremacy hath so often been 
opened unto me both by writing and speaking (if I had 
Grace, either to open mine eyes to see it, or mine ears to 
hear it) to be surely and certainly grounded, and estab- 
lished upon the very true Word of God : yet for lack of 
Grace I have most wilfully and obstinately suffered my 
self to fall to such blindness, that I have not onely 



APPENDICES 161 

thought that the Bishop of Rome hath been and aught 
to be taken the chief and Supream Head of the Universal 
Church of Christ here in earth, but also, like no true 
Subject, concealed and favoured such as I have known or 
thought to be of that opinion. For the which most 
detestable Treasons and untruths, I here most humbly 
and with all my heart first of all ask of the Kings Majesty 
forgiveness, and secondarily of the world, beseeching all 
these that either now do, or hereafter shall hear of these 
my great transgressions, to take this mine example for 
an instruction for them to call for grace, that they 
thereby be staid from falling at any time into such 
miserable blindness and folly. 

Moreover, here afore God and you (good Christian 
people) I do utterly and with all my heart recant and 
revoke all mine aforesaid erronious and traiterous 
opinions. And (as my Conscience dow doth force) I 
protest that even with my heart I firmly think and 
undoubtedly believe, that the Bishop of Rome neither 
now hath, nor at any time hath had, or can have by 
any Law of God or Man, any more Authority, without 
the precinct of his own Country about him, than any 
other Bishop hath within his Diocess. Whereby I 
assuredly take the abolishing of the pretended and 
usurped Power or Authority of the Bishop of Rome out 
of this Realm, to be justly and truely by the Law of God. 
And also I take our Soveraign Lord the Kings Highness 
to be Supreme Head, immediately next under Christ, 
of the Church of England and Ireland, and all other 
his Graces Dominions, both of the Spirituality and 
Temporalty, And I confess not only that his Majesty 
is so by the Law of God, but also his Progenitors, Kings 
of this Realm hath been, and his Highness Heirs and 
Successors Kings of this Realm shall so be. 

Thus have I shewed you my mind as well as I can, but 
neither so well as I would, nor so fully as I should, 
namely concerning the multitude of mercy which my 
most gracious Prince hath shewed toward me, not 



162 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

onely saving my Body after worthy condemnation to 
death, as is aforesaid, but also for saving my soul from 
perishing, if my Body had perished before the recieving 
of such wholsom Counsel, as I had at his Highness most 
charitable assignment. And of this Confission declared 
unto you (I say as for forth as I can) I heartily pray you 
all to bear me record, and most entirely pray Almighty 
God for the long and most prosperous estate of our 
Soveraign Lord the Kings Majesty in all his affairs and 
proceedings. 

By me John Hey wood. 

Memorandum, quod supra scripta assertia sive Recan- 
tatio fuit facta etc publice emissa per praenominatum 
Johanum Haywood die dominica, sexto viz. die Julii; 
anno millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo quarto, 
apud Crucem Paulinam, tempore Concionis ibedem. 

APPENDIX NO. 4 

WILL OF WILLIAM RASTELL 

Bang, Englische Studien, v. 38, p. 246. 

Extract from Scabinalen Protokollen (magisterial documents) of 

Antwerp, of year 1564, Sub Halle en Moy, vol. I, fol. 369. 

In nomine Dei omnipotentis, Ego, Guilielmus Rastell, Anglus, 
sanae et integrae mentis existens, condo, ordino et facio hoc supre- 
mum meum testamentum et ultimam voluntatem de omnibus et 
singulis meis praedio, fundis, possessionibus, reditibus, bonis, 
pecuniis, debitis et creditis, tarn in Anglia quam in Brabantia vel in 
quocunque alio loco, modo et forma sequentibus; in primis, com- 
mendo animam meam Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto, beatae Mariae 
virgini, sancto Johanni Evangelistae et omnibus Sanctis Dei, corpus 
autem meum examine terrae consecratae sepeliendum, ubi meis 
haeredis et executoribus infra scriptis, seu eorum alicui, quique pro 
tempore praesens fuerit, convenientius videbitur; ac facio, consti- 
tuo, ordino et nomino haeredem meum ex esse universalem Elizeum 
Heywood, Anglum, nepotem meum, et relinquo praefato Elizeo 
Hey wood haeredi meo, sibi, posteris et haeredibus suis pro sua 



APPENDICES 163 

quarta parte, ex juris civilis ordinatione, tam totum ilium annuum 
reditum meum haereditarium ducentorum et octuaginta florenorum, 
quern ultimo emi et acquisivi mihi et haeredibus meis de et super 
civitate Antwerpiae, bonis suis, eiviumque et incolarum ejusdem, 
quam quinquaginta florenos annui reditus partem alterius annui 
reditus mei maereditarii quingentorum florenorum, quern antea et 
prius emi et acquisivi mihi et haeredibus meis de et super praefata 
civitate Antwerpiae; Item volo quod idem Elizeus gaudeat et 
habeat sibi et haeredibus suis praedium meum in Northrnymys, in 
comitatu Hertsfordie in Anglia, ac omnia et singula mea prata, 
pascua, pasturas, agros, sylvas, terras, fundos et tenementa cum 
pertinentiis in Northrnymys praedicta, seu in quocunque alio loco 
in Anglia habendum, possidendum et tenendum eidem Elizeo 
Hey wood et haeredibus suis in perpetuum; Volo etiam quod idem 
Elizeus Heywood gaudeat et habeat sibi omnia vestimenta mea et 
apparatum corporis mei, monile meum aureum cum effigie Thomae 
Mori, parvum meum monile inscriptum cum nomine Jesus, horo- 
logium meum deauratum et imaginem meam salutationis beatae 
Marie virginis ex argento deaurato, et omnes libros meos impressos, 
exceptis libris de legibus Angliae. Item do et lego Bartholomeo 
More, Anglo, consanguineo meo, centum et viginti florenos annui 
reditus, partem dicti annui reditus mei haereditarii quingentorum 
florenorum, habendum, tenendum et possidendum eidem Bartho- 
lomeo sibi et haeredibus suis, sub hiis conditionibus sequentibus, 
videlicet quod in Anglia non degat, donee Anglia ad ecclesiam et 
catholicam fidem plene reconciliata fuerit; Item quod ipse vitam 
probe et honeste degat tam moribus quam doctrina, nee in haere- 
ticorum opinio nes aliquas declinet; quod si harum conditionum 
alicui contravenerit, tunc volo dictum Bartholomeum praefatis 
centum viginti florenis annui redditus privari, atque hos ordino et 
volo ab exequutoribus meis infrascriptis dari, distribui et erogari 
eodem modo et forma quibus iidem executores mei infrascripti 
dabunt, erogabunt, distribuent et disponent infrascriptos trecentos 
et triginta florenos annui reditus residuos praedicti annui reditus 
mei haereditarii quingentorum florenorum. Item do et lego Domino 
Joanni Clemens, Anglo, doctori in medicina, socero meo, annulum 
meum aureum cum lapide infixo vocato cameto, cum effigie albi 
capitis virginei; Item do et lego Margaritae Clement, uxori dicti 



164 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Johannis, annulum meum aureum cum rubino majori, annulum 
meum aureum quern dedi uxori meae in sponsalibus et cocleare meum 
argenteum; Item do et lego domino Thomae Clement, filio dieti 
Johannis, annulum meum aureum inscriptum cum nomine Jesus; 
Item do et lego Helenae Clement, filiae dicti Johannis, annulum 
meum aureum cum turchino; Item do et lego Brigittae Clement, 
filiae dicti Johannis, minutissimam cathenam meum auream, 
monile meum aureum con effigie Judith, annulum meum aureum 
cum rubino exiguo et duas cistas meas de arbore cupresso; Item do 
et lego fratri meo Johanni Rastell, Anglo, annulum meum aureum 
cum figuris astronomicis ; Item do et lego uxori ejusdem Johannis 
Rastell annulum meum aureum cum adamante albicanti; Item do 
et lego Johannae Stubbis, sorori dicti Elizei, cathenam meam auream 
majorem, ac annulum meum aureum forma antiquissima cum rubino 
infixo; Item do et lego Elizabetae Marvin, alii sorori dicti Elizei, 
annulum meum aureum cum effigie capitis mortui, inscriptum in- 
terius cum hiis litteris W. H. Item do et lego Elizabethae Donne, 
alii sorori dicti Elizei, annulum meum aureum cum saphiro; Item 
do et lego domino Willielmo Rooper, Anglo, annulum meum 
aureum cum effigie capitis mortui cum nomine gressam; Item do et 
lego Domino Johanni Heywood, patri dicti Elizei, annulum meum 
aureum cum effigie capitis mortui cum nomine bonvisi; Item do et 
lego domino Germino Crol, Anglo, annulum meum aureum, in- 
scriptum interius cum his litteris T. A. Item do et lego domino 
Thomae Wotton, Anglo, annulum meum aureum cum hac inscrip- 
tione: Les est arma Regum; Item do et lego Bartholomeo More 
praedicto annulum meum aureum minorem cum hac inscriptione : 
Lex Regum Lux; Item do et lego Johanni de Rine annulum meum 
aureum majorem ejusdem inscriptionis ; Item do et lego Georgio 
Ffisher, Anglo, annulum meum aureum cum lapide rubro, reliquos 
autem trecentos et triginta florenos annui reditus residuos praedicti 
annui reditus mei haereditarii quingentorum florenorum, quem 
prius emi et acquisivi mihi et haeredibus meis de et super praedicta 
civitate Antwerpiae, ac reliqua omnia bona, pecunias, debita et 
credita mea nemini superius relicta, data nee legate, volo et ordino 
dari, distribui, erogari et disponi per tres exequutores meos inferius 
nominatos vel superviventem eorum secundum animi mei volun- 
tatem et desiderium, prout illis plenius declaraturus sum in scripto 



APPENDICES 165 

anglicano super hac re propria mea maim conscripto; et facio, 
ordino et constituo exequutores istius mei testamenti praefatos 
Elizeum Heywood, Johannem Clement et Margaretam Clement, 
et do et lego cuilibet praedictorum Elizei, Johannis Clement et 
Margaretae ob laborem exequutionis hujus mei testamenti florenos 
quinquaginta; et si praefati Elizeus Heywood, Johannes Clement 
et Margareta obierint antequam ipsi seu eorum aliquis in parte 
vel in toto dederint, erogaverint, distribuerint seu disposuerint 
praedictos trecentos et triginta florenos annui redditus et bona, 
pecunias, debita et credita praedicta nemini superius relicta, data 
nee legata, tunc volo et ordino eosdem trecentos et triginta florenos 
annui reditus et bona, pecunias, debita et credita ilia, vel quod ex 
iisdem remanserit, dari, distribui, erogari et disponi per abbatissam 
et conventum monasterii monialium Anglarum de Sion, in Anglia 
modo residentium in Zelandia, 1 modo et forma prout dicti mei tres 
exequutores eadem dare, erogare, distribuere et disponere debuis- 
sent; et si contigerit conventum ilium dissolvi vel extingui, aut 
aliqua ratione seu causa, hujus exequutionis capacem non esse 
antequam dicta abbatissa et conventus in parte vel in toto dederint, 
erogaverint, disposuerint seu distribuerint, praedictor trecentos et 
triginta florenos annui reditus et bona, pecunias, debita et credita 
praedicta, nemini superius relicta, data nee legata, tunc volo et 
ordino post mortem praedictorum Elizei, Jobannis Clement et 
Margaretae eosdem trescentos et triginta florenos annui reditus 
et bona, pecunias, debita et credita ilia, vel quod ex eisdem reman- 
serit, dari, distribui, erogari et disponi per priorissas seu ma tres et 
conventus monasteriorum Sanctae Ursulae et Sanctae Clarae in 
Lovanio, modo et forma prout dicti mei tres execu tores eadem dare, 
erogare, distribuere et disponere debuissent. Et quicunque ex hiis 

'Machyn's Diary, p. 145: 

"The first day of August (1557) was the nones of Syon was closyd in by 
my lord bysshope of London and my lord abbott of Westmynster, and 
serten of the consell, and serten frers of that order, of shepe coler as the 
shepe bereth; and they had as grett a charge of ther leyfvyng, and never 
to goo forth as longe as they do lyffe, but ever ..." 
Also, p. 204 

"The iiij day of July (1559) the Thursday, the prests and nuns of Syon 
whent a-way, and the Charterhowse". 

Consult Bang's notes, Eng. Studien, band 38, pp. 246-7. 



166 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

dictis conventibus hanc meam dispositionem executus fuerit, lego 
eidem seu eisdem, ob laborem dictae executionis centum florenos, 
deinque hoc ultimo testamento meo omnes meos legittimos haeredes 
excludo, ne aliquid tituli aut juris in meis predio, fundis, pratis, 
pascuis, pasturis, agris, sylvis, terris, tenementis, reditibus, bonis, 
pecuniis, debitis et creditis praetendant nisi quatenus ex hoc testa- 
mento eisdem vel eorum seu earum alicui competere et pertinere 
apparet, non obstantibus consuetudinibus et ordinationibus huic 
meae dispositioni testamentarie, refragantibus, quae omnia et 
singula derogata volo; atque in hunc modum condidi hoc meum 
supremum testamentum, hocque propria mea manu scripsi, sub- 
scripsi et sigillo meo munivi, datum Antwerpie, octavo die mensis 
Augusti anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo sexagesimo quarto. 
Subscriptum per me Guilielmum Rastell. Item ego, Johannes ab 
Halle, opidi Antverpiae a Secretis, rogatus, huic testamento sub- 
scripsi et signavi die quo supra et signatum J. van Halle, et munitum 
dicto sigillo. Sic in dorso scriptum: Notum sit omnibus et singulis, 
quod hodierna die datae praesentium, coram nobis pro tribunali 
sedentibus, personaliter comparuit Dominus et Magister Guilielmus 
Rastell, Anglus, nobis satis cognitus, benevalens animo et corpore, 
manu tenens, nobisque offerens et exhibens praesentem hanc mem- 
branam manu propria (ut asserebat) intus scriptam, consuetoque 
suo sigillo et chyrographis tarn suo quam secretarii nostri scripti 
munitam et preterea aliud simile instrumentum in eadem forma 
similiter clausum et munitum uniusque et ejusdem tenoris et 
scripturae, exponens nobis in utroque et unoquoque eorum contineri 
Iegitimum suum testamentum, ultimam et extremam voluntatem 
haeredisque nominationem, desiderans et expresse jubens ut plenum 
testamenti sui et ultimae voluntatis effectum sortiatur, et post 
mortem suam pro tali tarn per suum haeredem quam suos execu- 
tores, omnesque alios quorum interest aut interesse poterit, omnino 
observetur, revocando, annihilando et irrita faciendo omnia et 
quaecunque alia sua testamentum seu testamenta, quae aut in 
Anglia sive in quacunque alia regione et loco ante hac unquam 
condidit sive confecit et quod istud solum (ut supra) locum habeat 
et servetur, etiam si forte non jure testamenti saltern codicilli, 
donationis causa mortis inter vivos sive quacunque alia institutionis 
sive donationis et dispositionis forma meliori qua aliquod testa- 



APPENDICES 167 

mentum sive extrema voluntas quoquo modo valere, observare et 
exequi potest et debet, secundum jura tarn ecclesiastica quam 
civilia; etiani consuetudines hujus opidi quam aliorum locorum ubi 
ipsi testatori diem claudere continget. In cujus rei testimonium et 
fidem Nos, Johannes a Schoonhoven et Johannes a Wervia, Equites, 
Jacobus Houtappel, Henricus van Etten, Martinus van Raust, et 
Johannes ab Malmale et Johannes a Mera, scabini opidi Antverpiae, 
inter caeteros collegas huic actui praesentes, sigilla nostra his (suo 
prius sigillo et chyrographo confirmatis) apponi curavimus die 
octava Augusti anno Domini M. D. sexagesimo quarto. Sub- 
scriptum: per me Guilielmum Rastell, et signatum J. van Halle, 
et munitum sigillis praefatorum Domini Guilielmi Rastell et Scabi- 
norum. Preterea in dorso scriptum: Die tertia Septembris anno 
XVCLXV comparuerant coram Dominis Burgmagistris et Scabinis 
opidi Antverpiae pro tribunali in Collegio sedentibus Domini Johan- 
nes Clemens, medicinae Doctor, et Helizeus Hewod, Angli, exhi- 
bentes binas tabulas testamentarias quondam Domini Guilielmi 
Rastell, etiam Angli, jamdudum (uti declarabant) Lovanii defuncti, 
clausas septem sigillis scabinorum hujus opidi et slgneto ejusdem 
Rastelli, suaque syngrapha confirmatas, nee non consueta signatura 
mei secretarii infrascripti, a nobis recensendas, quarum alterum 
exemplar penes defunctum repertum, alterum vero praefato Cle- 
menti commissum, accepimus, quae quidem sigilla et secretarii 
nostri signaturam a nobis visa et perlustrata, Lovanii vera coram 
amicis suis, ipso die exequiarum aperienda; recognoscimus. In 
cujus rei testimonium per eundem nostrum Secretarium hac sua 
signatura consueta signari et confirmari jussimus die, anno et loco 
quibus supra et signatum J. van Halle. Istud testamentum Lovanii 
(ut asserebam) apertum fuit, hie ad requisitionem praefati haeredis 
in registro ad perpetuam rei memoriam positum. Die V a Octobris 
1565, et concordat per omnia, collatum per me J. van Halle. 



168 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEY WOOD 

APPENDIX NO. 5 

Relationum Historicarum de Rebus Angiitis Tomus Primus Joannis 
Pitsei, Paris, 1619, p. 753 

"De Ioanne Heyuodo. 

Ioannes Hayuodus, Londini in Anglia natus, Thomae Moro multis 
annis familiarissimus. Vir pius, vtcumque doctus, valde ingeniosus, 
Musices tarn vocalis, quam instrumentalis peritus, elegans in Poesi, 
& plus quam credi potest, in familiari colloquio lepidus atque 
facetus. In salibus mire acutus, in dicterijs nonnihil aliquando 
mordax. De quo inter alia memorabile illud traditur, quod lethali 
morbo laborans, cum sua peccata praeterita multum deploraret, & 
bonus quidam Sacerdos, qui consolandi causa illi adfuit, illud solum 
responderet, & identidem repeteret, carnem esse fragilem. Retulit 
ille: nae tu Deum arguere videris, quod me non fecerit piscem. 
Liberos suos in timore Dei sollicite educauit, & in bonis litteris 
atque in fide Catholica optime institui fecit. Duos filios habuit 
Societatis Jesu presbyteros, ex quibus alterum nomine Gasparum 
Romae primum, diende Neapoli familiariter noui. Porro ipse 
Ioannes propter auitae religionis professionem exilium & incommoda 
multa pertulit. Mecliniae diu vixisse dicitur, & haud scio, an 
vnquam postea in patriam reuersus. Non pauca tradidit posteris 
litteraria monimenta, non tarn labore condita, quam lepore condita, 
& natiuo quodam quasi pipere, & ingenioso sale respersa. Quorum 
titulos hos sequentes saltern inuenio. 

Epigrammata prouerbialia, Librum vnum 

Trecentorum aliorum epigrammatum Libros duos 

De quadruplici (P) Librum vnum 

De aura comediam 

De amore tragoediam 

De aranea & musca versu Anglico Librum vnum 

Extat Londini anno Domini 1576. (56?) Vidi in bibliotheca Bene- 
dictinorum Anglorum Delovvariae in Lotharingia. 

Rithmos alios Anglicos Librum vnum 

Et alia his similia non pauca. Senex Londini vixisse dicitur anno 
Dominicae incarnationis 1556, dum in Anglican! regni solio sederet 
Philippus cum Maria. 



APPENDICES 169 

APPENDIX NO. 6 

A LIST OF PAGEANTS, MASKS, AND OTHER REVELS 

From Letters and Papers of Henry VHI 

1510 "Revels," Robin Hood, at Westminster, Jan. 18, for the queen, 
in which Henry took part. Brewer, n, 1490 ff. 
"Disguising" at Westminster, Feb. 1, in parliament chamber. 
Among properties: javelins, targets, Turkey knives, hair 
laces for ladies, arrows of gold. Ibid. 
King "runs at the ring" and gives largess to foreign visitors 
who were spectators. Mar. 17. Ibid. 
"Revel" at Richmond, Nov. 8. Arranged by Richard Gibson 
and Harry Wentworth. Ibid. 

1511 "Revel" in the queen's chamber, Jan. 6. "A hill summit, 
thereon a golden stock branched with roses and pomegranates 
crowned, out of which hill issued a Morryke danced by the 
king's young gentlemen, as hynsmen, and thereto a lady." 
Also a fool with a turned ladle. Ibid. 
"Joust of honor" at Westminster, Feb. 12 & 13. An artificial 
forest of hawthorns, oaks, maples, etc., a castle, a maiden 
sitting therein, a lion and an antelope, each bearing a maiden. 

Ibid. 
"Pageant" at Westminster, night of Feb. 13, "The Golden 
Arbor in the Archyard of Pleasure." Children of the Chapel 
present, also Sub-Dean, Cornish, Crane. Ibid. 

Christmas "pageant," "Dangerous Fortress," equipped with 
towers, cannon and arms, iron work, donjon. Six ladies 
therein; seven Gentlemen of the Chapel present, also Sub- 
Dean, Cornish, Crane. Ibid. 

1512 "Joust" and "Pageant," June 1. Among other expenses is 
charge for }/£ bushel wheat flour, for paste covering over 
"gargells faces and small serpents that garnschyd founten." 

Ibid. 

1513 "Pageant" at Greenwich, Jan. 6. "The Rich Mount," a rock 
of gold and precious stones, planted with broom to signify 



170 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Plantagenet, also red and white roses, a burning beacon on 
top; six lords, six minstrels, two armed men, all drawn by 
"two myghty woordwossys or wyld men." After the lords 
descend, the mount opens, six ladies appear, dressed in gold 
and rich clothes. Ibid. 

1514 Jan. 6. A Christmas "interlude" and "disguising"; a Moresque 
of six persons, and two ladies. Perhaps a Mask also, for 
elaborate properties are mentioned for "Venus" and "Beauty." 
Total for pageant and workers, paid Mar. 15, 404/i. 6s. 9d. 

1,718. 
Christmas Revel, of "four mummers," four ladies, four min- 
strels, and participated in by Henry, Suffolk, Carew, Gyll- 
forth. II, 1490 ff. 

Pageant (?) and joust (?), at Tournay, June 15. Property- 
charges for gunners, guns, powder and shot. "Payntors 
drawing the towne of Bullon and grownde about the same," 
etc. II, 1511 

1515 Jan. 6, "Pavyllyon un the Plas Parlos" Pageant; four towers, 
bushes of roses at tops, armed knights on guard, speeches, 
armed knights fight, separation, knights rescue other knights 
and ladies in castle; garments kept by persons disguised; 
gentlemen and children of the Chapel present. II, 1490 ff. 
"Joust of Honor" at Greenwich, Feb. 3. Ibid. 
"Joust of Pleasure" at Richmond, Apr. 19. Ibid. 
Pageant, "Pallys Marchallyn," ten towers; money for this 
paid May 9. Ibid. 
"Pageant" of Robin Hood, and "Joust," at Greenwich, May 
festival. Equipment and clothing for Robin Hood, Maid 
Marion, Lady May, Friar Tuck, Little John. "Personages in 
the May:" 125 yeomen, 11 ladies, and children of the Chapel. 

II, 1504 ff. 

1516 "Play" and "disguising," Jan 6, at Eltham. Cornish and 
children of Chapel present "the story of Troylous and Pandor 
richly inparalled, also Kallkas and Kryssyd inparylled like 
a widow of honor, in black sarsenet and other habiliments for 
such matter, Dyomed and the Greeks inparylled like men 



APPENDICES 171 

of war, according to the intent or purpose." After the 
comedy, a castle of timber in the King's hall; three strange 
knights did battle with those of the castle, out of which issued 
three men at arms with spears, to do feats "at the barriers" 
against three strange men, exchange thrusts, then fight 12 
strokes with naked swords, then away; Queen comes out of 
castle with 6 ladies, speeches made, written by Cornish; 7 
minstrels on walls of castle sing; then 6 lords and 6 ladies 
issue from castle, dance? 11,1505-6 

Jan. 29, King holds "running at the ring," at Greenwich. 
Feb. 5, King holds "running at the ring," at Greenwich. 
May 20, "Jousts of Honor" at Greenwich, also on May 21. 

II, 1507-8 

1517 "Pageant" at Greenwich, Jan. 6. "The Gardyn de Esperans," 
garden railed with banks of artificial flowers, pillar of sinaper 
decorated with gold, as were railings; Cornish makes 
speech, showing intent of revels, 2 children with him. In 
garden, 6 knights and ladies walking. "The pageant was 
brought toward the hall with noise of minstrels, which ended, 
it retreated and the personages descended and danced before 
the king, the queen, and the court." II, 1509 

"Joust" at Greenwich, July 7. II, 1510 

1518 "Tourneys" and "Jousts" at Greenwich, Oct. 7 (?); King, 
Queen, French Queen, Princess, the two Legates, French, 
Spanish and Venetian ambassadors, and nobles of the realm 
present. II, 1516 

1519 "Maskalyne" after the manner of Italy, Mar. 7, 46 persons, 
hoods, masks, petticoats, hoops, etc. Next day jousts. 

Ill, 34 

1520 To the Children of the Chapel for singing Audivi on All- 
hallows Day, 20*. Pd. Nov. 12. Ill, 1543 

1521 Reward to the King's Players, 66s. 8d. Jan. 12; "To his old 
players, 4li." Ibid. 

1522 Pageants (11) given by London when Emperor Charles 
visited Henry VHI. Chambers, II, 171 



172 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

Pageant of the Golden Fleece, by London Drapers, in Lord 
Mayor's procession, etc. Chambers, II, 165 

1524 Pageant (?) and "Jousts" at Greenwich, Dec. 29. King 
authorizes building of a castle and mountain in yard; uni- 
corn, shields, banners, "iiij pessys of clothe payntyng of 
Antyuke, wherewith the kastell was enornyd," bell for 
castle tower, silver damask for "heeres and berds," 2 ladies' 
dresses of strange fashion, hire of 2 women's hair; 4 gentle- 
men of Chapel present. Brewer, IV, 418 
"Meskeler" at Greenwich, Chris tmastide; costs I2li. 4s. 
ll^d. Ibid. 

1527 "Play," "Revel," "Jousts", and "Triumph", at Greenwich, May 
6. "The Kyngis plesyr was that at the said revells by clarks 
in the Latyn tonge (Rastell's, below?) should be playd in hys 
hy presence a play whereof insuythe the namys:" Orator, 
Religion, Ecclesia, Veritas, Heresy, False Interpretacion, 
Corrupcio Scriptoris, the herrytyke Lewtar, Luther's wife, 
Peter, Paul, James, a cardinal, 2 sergeants, "The Dolfyn" 
and his brother, 3 Almayns, Lady Peace, Lady Quietness, 
Dame Tranquility. IV, 1605. 

"Mr. Ryghtwos, master of St. Paul's School, asks to be 
allowed for doublets, hose, and shoes for the children who 
were poor men's sons, and for fire in times of learning the 
play 45s." Ibid. 

For the king's use at the triumph, 24 barbs, new buckles, tails 
of Hungary leather; 8 gowns of cloth of tissue and tinsel for 
Princess and ladies. Jousts also at this revel. IV, 1392 

"The Great Pageant" at Greenwich, Gibson's accts. dated 
May 9; charges for ports, towers, cutting stairs, levelling and 
hylling the roof, making rock, staining 600 yards cloth, 
making flowers, beasts, etc. Ibid. 

"In 1527 Rastell seems to have provided for the court a 
pageant of 'The Father of Hevin' in which a dialogue, both 
in English and Latin, of riches and love, written by John 
Redman, and also a "barriers" were introduced." 

Chambers, II, 201 



APPENDICES 173 

Pageant (?) "A Place of Pleasure," Nov. 10; an arbor in the 
reveling chamber within the tilt-yard at Greenwich, 2 arches, 
portal, fountain, pipes for conduit, 8 long canes to put out 
the lights, dancing lights, coal and fagots for heating, etc. 

Brewer, IV, 1604 

1533 Pageants and Procession for Queen Anne Boleyn; both on 
barges on Thames, and in London streets. Pageants; great 
red dragon; a mountain with devices of falcon, red and 
white roses; etc. Chambers, II, 171 

1536 "Plan of a Pageant" for Jane Seymour? June 4? Figures: 
Father of Heaven, Conception of Our Lady, with sun, moon, 
day-star, gates of heaven, well of life, story of Adam and 
Eve, cages with quick birds to be set in a meadow, "fourteen 
other subtilties at the pleasure of the maker." Brewer, X, 421. 

1537 Payments made in Cromwell's Accounts; Dec. 27, Lord 
Chancellor's players 20s., Lord Marquis of Exeter's players 
15s., 28th, Mr. Bryan's minstrels 15s. 

Payment made Feb. 19, "for my Lord's part of the mask 20 
marks." XIV, 329 ff. 

1538 Cromwell's Accounts; Jan. 13, to Children of the Chapel, 
7s, 6d. 

Jan. 20, to Lord Warden's players 20s. 

Jan. 22, to Duke of Suffolk's players 20s., to Lord Chancel- 
lor's players 10s. 

Feb. 2, to Woodall, the schoolmaster of Eton, for playing be- 
fore my Lord 5li. 
Feb. 4, to Lord Cobham's players 20s. 

Mar. 4, to Robyn Drowme and his fellows for their waiting 
two nights the same time my Lord made the King a mask 
20s. Charges of the mask 25Zi. lis. 5d. 

Apr. 12, to Mr. Hopton's priest, for playing before my Lord 
with his children, 22s. 6d. 

June 30, to the King's minstrels, 7s. 6d. 
Dec. 29, The waits of London 20*. 



174 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

1539 Jan. 7, to Robyn Drome and his fellow 15s. 

Jan. 25, to Christopher, the mylyoner, for the charges of the 
mask lOli. 

Jan. 31, to Bale and his fellows for playing before my Lord 
30s. 

Feb. 11,12, 17, 22, payments made for John Hey wood's mask 
of Arthur's Knights. XIV, 317 ff. 

To Children of the Chapel for singing Audivi vocem on All- 
hallows 20s. Ibid. 
Letter to Cromwell from Sir Francis Bryan, Sept. 14: 
"Last night he (Henry) had as fair a mask and was as merry 
as he has been this good while." XIV, 52 

1540 King gives order for apparel for a play to be done by the 
Children of the Chapel, New Year's day at Greenwich. 

XIV, 284 
Scottish Interludes. Sir Win. Eure writes to Cromwell from 
Berwick castle, Jan 26, 1540: he asks how the King and 
Council of Scotland were inclined towards the Bishop of 
Rome or a reformation of the spirituality, is told James him- 
self and all his council were much given to the reformation 
of clergy — so much so that they had an interlude played 
last Epiphany before the king and queen at Linlithgow, all 
turning upon the naughtiness of religion, the presumption 
of bishops, the collusion of the spiritual courts, and misusing 
of priests. Eure sends a note of the play made by a "Scots- 
man of our sort" who witnessed it. XV, 36 
Christmas Revels. Marillac writes to Francis I, Dec. 31, 
1540, "No other news these holidays but of mummeries and 
rejoicing." XVI, 170 

1544 Revels at Hampton Court; bill of charges, also goods trans- 
ferred from Winchester, "white cotton for rolls to Turks 
heads." Dated Apr. 21. XIX, 244 



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178 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEYWOOD 

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180 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN HEY WOOD 

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INDEX 



Acolastus, 121 

Act of Supremacy, 28, 40, 143 

Actors, 12, 47, 49, 50, 51, 80, 120 

Age and Youth, 100 

Alington, Giles, 23, 24 

All for Money, Lupton, 90 

Alkie, John, 102 

Andrewe, Leonard, 20 

Arte of English Poesie, 10, 43 

Arte of Rhctorique, 67, 75 

Arthur's Knights, Mask of, Heywood, 

81, 32, 120, 174 
Aske, Robert, 30, 144 

Baldwin, Wm, 45, 100 

Bale, John, 4, 9, 17, 31, 57, 80, 93, 

103, 121, 133, 134 
Barclay, Alexander, 23, 84, 109, 

122, 132, 146 
Barriers, 85, 171, 172 
Bastard, Thos., 77 
Be merry, friends, Heywood lyric, 

128 
Berthelet, T., 130 
Blason, 86 
Boccaccio, 89 
Boleyn, Anne, 15, 26, 27, 30, 54, 

88, 90, 143, 173 
Bolmer manor, 61 
Boniface IX, Pope, 106 
Bonvisi, Ant., 64 
Brant, Sebastian, 109 
Bridgewater, John, 73 
Broadgates, see Pembroke College 
Broke Hall, 33 
Buckingham, Edward duke of, 11, 

159 



Buhner, John, see Bolmer manor 
Burghley, Lord, 4, 67, 69, 70 

Calisto and Melibosa, 81, 116 

Camden, Wm., 58 

Catherine of Aragon, 15, 26, 146 

Cavendish, George, 23 

Celestina, 116 

Century of Epigrams, 78 

Chapel Royal choir, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 

46-48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 107, 

169/. 
Chaucer, 19, 56, 80, 93, 94, 104, 

105, 107, 109, 110, 111, 117, 152, 

153 
Children, boy actors, etc., 12, 31, 

46-55, 119, 120 (see also Chapel 

Royal, St. Paul's, Wolsey) 
Chrestoleros, 77 
Clement, Dr. John, 24, 37, 158, 

163, 165, 167 
Clement, Winifred (Rastell), 64, 158 
Clercs de la Basoche, 118 
Clerico et Puella, de, 101 
Colet, John, 48, 49 
Colte, Jane, 24, 158 
Colyn Clout, see Skelton 
Compleat Gentleman, Peacham, 3 
Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae, 73, 74 
Copland, 102 
Cornish, Wm., 5, 21, 47, 51, 94, 

103, 105, 107, 110, 114, 117, 

169/. 
Courtly love, 88-89, 90, 132 
Cranmer, Archbishop, 1, 26, 27, 

35, 36, 37, 41, 57, 68, 127, 143, 145 
Cresacre, Anne (More), 23, 158 



184 



INDEX 



Cromwell, Thos., 20, 31, 32, 33, 
173, 174 

Dame Sirith, 101 

Davies, Sir John, 76, 77 

Death and Youth, 100 

Debat, 81, 84, 85, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 

99, 100, 111, 119, 121, 132, 152 
Discourse of English Poetrie, 75 
Disputation, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 87, 

88, 94, 95, 97, 99, 100, 112, 152 
Donne, Dean John, 1, 25, 26, 33, 

34, 66, 158 
Droeshout, Father, 4, 67, 71, 73 
Dyalogue du fol et du sage, 84 

Edward VI, 1, 3, 14, 18, 25, 34, 
44, 45, 47, 49, 54, 55, 116 

Edwards, Richard, 65, 75, 117, 156 

Elizabeth, 1, 16, 17, 26, 27, 34, 44, 
49, 53, 54, 62, 67 

Elliott, Sir Thos., 29 

En j 'ants sans souci, 118 

Epigrams, Heywood, 3, 7, 19, 43, 

57, 58, 63, 74, 75, 77, 78, 103, 
133, 134-136 

Epigrams upon Proverbs, Heywood, 

58, 63, 130, 133-134 
Erasmus, 48, 49, 60, 84, 135 
Estrif, 81 

Eton, 48, 49 
Euphues, see Lyly 
Everyman, 80 

Fabliau, 87, 88, 90, 102, 111, 112, 

114, 117, 118, 119, 120 
Farce, 80, 81, 82, 90, 95, 100, 101, 

103, 104, 108, 110, 111, 112, 117, 

118, 119, 120, 122 
Farce nouvelle aVun Pardonneur, d'un 

Triacleur, et d'une Taverniere, 103 
Farthing, Thos., 10 



Feast of Fools, 1 1 1 

Fortescue, Sir Adrian, 2 

Four Elements, Interlude of the, 20 

Four P's, Heywood, 12, 22, 57, 

58, 81, 94, 101-105, 108, 109, 

111, 116 
Foxe, John, 35, 40, 160JT. 
French drama, 80, 81, 84, 103, 104, 

108, 110, 111, 114, 115, 118, 119 
Fryth, John, 20 

Gammer Gurton's Needle, 119 

Garcon et VAveugle, he, 101 

Gardiner, Germain, 36, 38, 39 

Gardiner, Stephen, 35, 36, 38, 57 

Gentleness and Nobility, Heywood, 
20, 81, 82, 90-95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 
136, 152 

Ghent, Pacification of, 72 

Giggs, Margaret (Clement), 29, 
37, 64, 158, 163, 165 

God and Man, 100 

Googe, Barnaby, 75, 76 

Grace of God, Heywood's poem, 126 

Grafton, Richard, 61, 76 

Graphie, 86, 87, 88, 90, 124 

Green Willow, A Ballad of the, Hey- 
wood, 127 

Greene, Robert, 122 

Grimald, Nicholas, 117 

Griselda, 117 

Hall, Chronicle, 14, 54 

Harington, Sir John, 10, 40, 66, 

76,77 
Harpesfield, Dr., 54 
Harvey, Gabriel, 19, 76 
Hay don manor, 11, 159 
Heath, Epigrams, 78 ■ 
Henry VIII, 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 

14, 20, 26, 27, 28, 34, 36, 47, 

49, 88, 95, 143, 169/. 



INDEX 



185 



Hey wood, Elizabeth (Donne), 29, 
33, 64, 65, 66, 70, 158, 164 

Heywood, Elizabeth (Marvin), 29, 
30, 158, 164 * 

Heywood, Ellis, 3, 4, 19, 23, 25, 
26, 57, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 
135, 158, 162/. 

Heywood, Jasper, 29, 34, 44, 57, 
65, 66, 69, 158 

Heywood, Johanna (Stubbs), 29, 
30, 158, 164 

Heywood, John (father?) , 2 

Heywood, John; chronological table, 
xijf.; parents, 2; birthplace, 3; 
birth, 4; at court, 5; university, 
6; musician, 8-17; singer, 9; 
actor, 9, 54; royal favors, 10/.; 
land grants and property, 10, 
11, 32, 33, 34, 42, 56, 61, 66, 69, 
70; player on virginals, 12, 13, 
16, 17, 42; friendship with Mary, 
15, 28, 30, 31, 58, 59, 61; steward, 
18, 42, 44, 56, 61; marriage, 19; 
More and Rastells, 20-25; plays 
published, 27; acts plays with 
children, 31, 44, 45/.; mask at 
court, 31, 32; against Cranmer, 
35-41; anecdotes, 43H4, 58-59; 
dramatic director of boys, 46- 
55; leaves England, 63-64; exile, 
64/.; riots, 71/.; death, 73; con- 
tribution to drama, 122; writings, 
see individual titles. 

Heywood, William (father?), 2 

Hickscorner, 121 

Historia Histrionica, 112 

Hitchen, 49 

Hit Nayle o th' Head, 121 

Hobbes, Leviathan, 148 

Holinshed, 54, 76, 99, 137 

Idleness, Hey wood's poem, 126 



Impatient Poverty, 121 

Impressa, 59 

Innocent, Pope, 106 

Interlude, 80, 95, 101, 105, 108, 

118, 119, 120, 122, 169/. 
Ireland, State of, Baldwin, 45 

Jack Juggler, 119, 121 

James I, 54 

Jeu-parti, -parture, joc-partit, 81, 

111 
John, Tib, and Sir John, 12, 22, 27, 

81, 103, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 

112-115, 117 
Jones, Inigo, 79 
Jonson, Ben, 58, 59, 79, 156 
Jousts, 2, 169/. 
Juan, Don, 72 
Julius, Pope, 106, 110 

Kemp, Margery, 23 
Ket's Rebellion, 144 
King Johan, Bale, 121 
King's Players, 47, 49, 51 
Kite, John, 12, 47 
Kyrbybellers Priory, 42 
Kytson, Ant., 95 

Leo X, Pope, 9, 105, 106, 110, 111 

Leviathan, Hobbes, 148 

Lily, Wm, 48, 49 

Linacre, Thos., 48 

Long have I been a singing man, 

Heywood's poem, 8, 17, 125, 

127, 130 
Love, Play of, Heywood, 27, 57, 

58, 81, 85-90, 94, 95, 99, 107. 

108, 119, 124 
Love song, Heywood's, 1 28 
Love and Life, 100 
Lucian, Icaro-Menippns, 98 
Lucretia, 20 



186 



INDEX 



Lupton, Thos, 90 
Lyly, John, 89, 134, 156 
Lyndsay, David, 111 

Mackarll, D., 144 

Macro plays, 80 

Magnificence, Skelton, 80, 121 

Malice, Heywood's poem, 127 

Marriage of Philip and Mary, Hey- 
wood's poem, 56, 128-129 

Martial d' Auvergne , 88 

Mary, 1, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 
26, 27, 28, 30, 49, 53, 54, 55, 56, 
58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 110, 116, 124, 
125, 128, 129, 142, 143, 144, 147 

Mary, Heywood's poem to, 28, 
124-125 

Man, for thine ill life, Heywood's 
poem, 126 

Masks, 2, 9, 31, 32, 45, 47, 90, 120, 
123, 169/. 

Mathias, 72 

Maxey manor, 10, 11, 13 

Medwall, Nature, 22, 121 

Meliboeus, 117 

Melton, Nicholas, 144 

Menaechmi, 48, 121 

Mercurian, Father, 71 

Meres, Francis, 77 

Metamorphosis of Ajax, 76 

Middleton, Alice, 23, 24, 158 

Middleton, Wm, 101, 103 

Minstrels, 118, 119 

Minut, Gabriel de, 87, 124 

Miracle plays, 80, 81, 90, 101 

Misogonus, 114 

Misrule, Lord of, 65 

Morality plays, 80, 81, 88, 95, 100, 
101, 119, 121, 122 

More, Elizabeth (Rastell), 19, 23, 
158 

More, Margaret (Roper), 24, 29, 158 



More, Sir Thomas, 1, 3, 4, 8, 19, 
20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 
37, 57, 60, 64, 73, 78, 84, 95, 
105, 120, 135, 143, 148, 158, 163 

More, Play of Sir Thomas, 104, 121 

Morris dances, 80 

Mulcaster, 54 

Mundus et Infans, 121 

Mylton monastery, 42 

Mystery plays, 80, 96 

Nature, 121 

Nature of the Four Elements, 100, 121 

Newark, Wm., 51 

Newton, Thos., 74 

Nice Wanton, 119 

Northumberland, Duke of, 43, 145 

Old Custom, 121 
Orange, Duke of, 72 
Orlando Furioso, 77 

Palamon and Arcite, 117 

Palladis Tamia, 77 

Paradise of Dainty Devices, 65 

Pardoner and Friar, 9, 27, 81, 94, 
103, 104, 105-112, 114, 115, 117 

Parr, Catherine, 49 

Paulett, Wm. Marquis of Win- 
chester, 43, 132 

Peacham, Henry, 3 

Peasants' Revolt, 147 

Peele, George, 156 

Pembroke College (Broadgates), 6, 7 

Per net qui va au vin, 114-115 

Philip II of Spain, 54, 56, 128, 129, 
142 

Phormio, 121 

Piers Plowman, 91, 109 

Pilgrimage of Grace, 30, 143, 144 

Pitts, John (Pitseus), 4, 17, 73, 
103, 121, 154, 168 



INDEX 



187 



Plautus, 22, 48 

Pole, Cardinal Reginald, 57, 65, 

129, 146 
Pope, Sir Thos., 29 
Powell, Thos., 57, 129, 136 
Pride and Lowliness, 100 
Provencal, 81, 88, 89 
Proverbs Concerning Marriage, Hey- 

wood, 43, 60, 75, 89, 99, 103, 

130-133 
Puttenham, 56 
Puys, 118 

Queen's men, players, 49 

Radcliff, Ralph, 117 

Rainsforth (Rainsford), Richard, 

33, 158 
Rastell, Eliza (Heywood), 3, 19, 22, 

23, 25, 26, 64, 70, 158 
Rastell, John, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 

85, 90, 93, 95, 116, 120, 158, 172 
Rastell, Wm„ 3, 23, 25, 27, 29, 64, 

66, 71, 85, 90, 95, 104, 105, 107, 

108, 112, 158, 162/. 
Ralph Roister Doister, 60, 119, 121 
Redford, John, 51, 53, 54, 121, 125 
Respublica, 60, 121 
Riches and Love, 85, 94, 100, 121 
Riches and Youth, 85, 94, 100, 121 
Richmond, Henry duke of, 11, 20 
Richmond, Margaret countess of, 11 
Right wise, John, 49, 172 
Robin Conscience, 100 
Robin Hood, 80, 122, 170 
Romney marsh, 69 
Roper, Win., 22, 24, 29, 37, 158 

Sanders (Sanderus), Nicholas, 29, 

67 
St. Paul's choir boys, 5, 12, 16, 17, 

44, 46, 48, 49, 51, 52, 55, 62 



St. Paul's deanery and cathedral, 

33, 54, 55 
St. Paul's grammar school, 48, 49, 

54, 55, 172 
St. Peter's, Woodstreet, 34 
St. Osith's, 32, 42 

Scarborough castle, Heywood's bal- 
lad, 129-130 
Scarborough warning, 129-130 
Seneca, 65 

Seymour, Jane, 116, 173 
Sermon joyeux, 111, 119 
Skip of Fools, see Barclay 
Six Articles, 35, 40 
Skelton, John, 20, 22, 80, 86, 95, 

104, 109, 121 
Slander and Detraction, Heywood's 

ballad, 126-127 
Smith, Walter, 24 
Societes joyeuses, 118 
Somer, Will, 34, 35, 82, 83, 84, 154 
Sottie, 103, 111, 115, 117 
Spider and Fly, Heywood, 56, 60, 

81, 92, 93, 94, 98, 99, 110, 123, 

130, 136-153, 155 
Stafford, Thos., 129 
Sternhold, Psalms, 3 
Stow, Annals, 55, 76 
Strype, John, 35, 36 
Surrey, Earl of, 2, 75, 124 
Sword dances, 80 
Symmings, 33, 158 

Tencon, 81, 89 

Tenne Tragedies of Seneca, 65 

Textor, Ravisius, 115, 116 

Thalia's Banquet, Peacham, 3 

Theocritus, 81 

Thersites, 81, 115-116, 119 

Thynne, 100 

Tindale, Bishop, 95, 146 

Torpel manor, 10, 11, 13 



188 



INDEX 



Tottel, Richard, 25. 124, 130 
Towneley, Secunda Pastorum, 101 
Troilus, Grimald, 117 
Troylous and Pandor, Cornish, 107, 

117, 170 
Twyford, Sgt., 11 

Udall, Nicholas, 51, 60, 62 

Van Wilder, Philip, 15 
Vargas, 56 

Vice, 87, 88, 90, 96, 99, 122 
Virginals, 12, 14 

Visibili Monorchia Ecclesia, De, 
67 

Wakefield plays, 80 

Weather, Play of the, Heywood, 27, 

57, 58, 81, 93, 95-100, 107, 108, 

109, 119 
Webbe, Wm., 75 



Westcott, Sebastian, 16, 44, 49, 

53, 62, 119 
Westminster school, 49 
Whederykke, John, 32 
Wicliffe, 147 
Wilson, Thos., 67, 68, 69, 70, 73, 

75, 133 
Windsor chapel, 49, 50, 51 
Wit and Folly, see Witty and Witless 
Wit and Science, Redford, 54, 121, 125 
Witty and Witless, Heywood, 7, 34, 

81-85, 90, 91, 93, 94, 136, 152 
Wolsey, Cardinal, 5, 23, 31, 47-48, 

50, 51, 109 
Women, Interlude of, 20 
Works, Heywood, 63, 123 
Wyatt's Rebellion, 129, 144, 145 

Ye be welcome, Heywood's song, 

128 
York plays, 80 
Youth, Interlude of, 100, 121 



VITA 

Robert Whitney Bolwell was born in New York City, on 
October 10, 1891. He attended St. Paul's School, Southport, 
Conn., and received his A.B. degree in 1916 from Western 
Reserve University. He was a University Scholar in English 
at Columbia University, 1916-1917, and received the A.M. 
degree from this institution in June, 1917. In 1917-1918 he 
was in residence at Columbia University for the Ph.D. 
degree, again as University Scholar, and in January, 1918, 
was appointed Lecturer in English. In May, 1918, he entered 
military service. In October, 1919, he resumed his studies 
at Columbia University, and was appointed Instructor in 
English. In the fall of 1920 he became Assistant Professor 
of English Literature in George Washington University. 



J? 



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